Night Watchmen 101: Terminate and Stay Resident
by Ironbear
Summary: As if training, junkie vampires, and interpersonal dynamics weren't bad enough, weird science once again makes life complicated for the gang as they begin their Senior - and final - year of High School at good old SHS.
1. Prologue: Back to Class

_**An Alternate BtVS Season 3:**_**"Mortal Friends; Mortal Foes"**

_**Author:**_ Sherman Barnes aka "Ironbear"

_**Disclaimer:**_ _Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, and all characters from those series belong to Mutant Enemy, Joss Whedon, 20th Century Fox Television, Kuzui Enterprises, UPN, Warner Brothers, and David Greenwalt Productions. I'm only borrowing them for the purposes of fanfiction, and only the plot and storyline, and those characters of my own creation belong to me. No profit is being made from this endeavor. Faith's back story draws __loosely__ from that shown in "Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary" by Robert Joseph Levy; Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Episode events and episode dialog quotes, where used, are drawn from the transcripts and summaries at Buffyworld .com, Wikipedia, and the shooting scripts at Unreliablenarrator . net _

_**Author's Note: **__What if Faith had arrived earlier in Sunnydale and Buffy had returned a month later? What if the Mayor had had a slightly different goal? What if Spike never made it out of town following the love spell disaster, but met a different fate? Just how far apart is the line between "good slayer' and "evil slayer"? Diverges drastically from canon in many places, especially following "Lover's Walk" and "Bad Girls"._

_**Synopsis:**_ _As if training, junkie vampires, and interpersonal dynamics weren't bad enough, weird science once again makes life complicated for the gang as they begin their Senior - and final - year of High School at good old SHS. _

_**Word Count:**_57,613_ total. _56,578_ sans Disclaimer, Previouslies, and Credits._

**"Night Watchmen"**

_**Mortal Friends, Mortal Foes -**_

_**A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Alternate Season 3**_

_**Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:**_

_Santa Barbara: "Which should bring us back to your proposed student for me," Lirio suggests. "Yes, rather," Giles says, nodding. Removing his glasses, he gives her a direct look. "Willow Rosenberg is a bit of a problem for me, I'm afraid. While she isn't a 'natural' or hereditary witch, unlike another young woman of our acquaintance, she is possessed of a great deal of potential power and ability. And, unfortunately, while I have a great deal of magical knowledge and theory, her potential ability outstrips my own by enough that I fear I am unable to instruct her adequately." Lirio frowns slightly. "Hrmm. While a majority of true witches do inherit their talents, wild talents do occur on occasion. And they can often be quite powerful."_

_Lake Cachuma: "Maybe we can hold out until Homecoming?" Xander blurts out. "Tux, gorgeous dress, nice dinner, limo," he runs his hand down her silk covered back, "hotel room and sexy lingerie?" He clears his throat, saying, "Give me a chance to prove I don't see anyone else except you." Her lips quirk up at the corners, and she tilts her head slightly. "Hrmm. It'll be hard," Cordelia slides her leg over him and moves her hips, causing him to make a strangled noise in his throat, "But we might be able to last that long." Xander croaks, "Oh, it's hard all right." Cordelia laughs, and after a moment he starts spluttering in laughter along with her._

_Lake Cachuma: Shaking her head slightly, Faith gave him a tight smile. "You heard me the first time. Let's see what happens." A wides grin split Legombe's face as an incandescent bolt struck the intersection behind them and thunder snarls somewhere close. "Done." Reaching out his hand, he touches her gently between the eyes, his fingertips trailing gently along her cheek as Faith feels herself starting to fade out of the dreaming. "You think you know what you are. You have no idea what you can yet become." She calls out, "Wait - Will I remember any of this?" She hears, "Not consciously, And not for a long time yet to come," as she fades back to her sleeping reality, "Only the part that matters will recall this."_

_Lake Cachuma: Shortly after their departure, a figure steps out of the deep shadows at the edge of the side chamber. Black of skin and eyes, long of face, and wrapped in flowing robes and tattered cloak, Faith would recognize him from the earlier dream she no longer quite remembers. However, no one is here to see as he strode to and past the slightly disturbed medicine wheel and out through the entrance of the small side cavern into the larger gallery. Giving a slight and satisfied nod, he waved his ornate staff in an intricate set of movements before the cave entrance. It closes up to bare rock face under the moving staff and he turns and disappears once again into the sheer rock face at the other side of the gallery..._

**...**

**Prologue: Back to Class -**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sunnydale, Harris residence, early morning.**_

Xander Harris found himself shaken out of a deep sleep by a horrible noise at way too early an hour, at least according to what his sleep muddled brain was telling him. Reaching out hastily, he silenced the alarm clock before it could wake up his parents in the bedroom down the hall. Assuming they'd actually made it up to the bedroom before passing out, err... 'falling asleep'.

Freezing in place, he spent several minutes listening carefully until he was satisfied he'd reached the alarm before anyone else woke up. Afterwards, he hauled himself out of bed, groaning under his breath. _'First day of a new school year, oh happy happy joy,'_he thought.

A fast shower later, he padded back to his room in his boxers while still toweling his hair dry and quietly closed the door behind him. You didn't slam doors in the Harris household of a morning, no siree. Not if you wanted to get dressed and slip out without drama.

Quickly stuffing his backpack-book bag with school supplies and some worn fatigue pants, shirt, and t-shirt for later patrolling, he closed the flap and tossed it on his still rumpled bed. That taken care of, he turned to his closet and dresser for the unaccustomed - to him - dilemma of choosing what to wear.

_Last_ year it wouldn't have even been a question. He'd have grabbed some old corduroys and a shirt and t-shirt of some type, thrown on a pair of high top sneakers or some running shoes, and been off and running. Now, there was actual debate involved, most of it centering on whether he wanted to wear some of his new stuff and face a whole new world of possible ridicule, or throw on his usual and deal with the Wrath of Cordelia.

Ok, so not that much of a question. Somehow, the Wrath of Cordelia was actually _scarier_ than facing demons or the Hellmouth Beast. Not to mention that, a quieter and unaccustomed part of his mind said, Cordelia's disappointment in him would be even worse.

No: what would be worse would be the fact that she _wouldn't_ be disappointed. Or surprised, even. She'd just sigh, make some cutting remark, and those toffee colored eyes would very briefly flash a kind of resigned _'I should have known'_ at him that would cut a lot more to the quick than whatever insult she dredged up.

Xander sighed. This 'growing up' idea was a lot easier when he was just talking about it over dinner with Cordy, a kind of a theory he was exploring. Actually doing it meant that he had to make choices and figure out just how the hell to go about it now.

Ok. So part of it is that 'meeting people half way and actually changing thing' he'd mentioned at dinner. He could do that. Sure he could. That decided, he grabbed a pair of darkish tan cargo jeans of a hanger, and a kind of dark olive colored denim shirt from his newer stuff. 'Sage' his mind supplied, and he shoved it down with a derisive snort. Olive. A dark brown Mountain t-shirt with a coiling dragon over a celtic cross design both went with the shirt and - more importantly - placated his inner sci-fi geek. He pulled the shirt on over it, leaving it unbuttoned most of the way, slid into the jeans and tucked both in. Grinning a bit to himself, he deliberately chose a pair of mismatched socks from his dresser with a mental sticking-out-of-the-tongue at Cordy while pulling them on. The dark brown leather bomber jacket topped off the whole thing - the weather channel had been predicting rain and unseasonably cool September weather for SoCal. Why, it might get all the way down to the low sixties or very high fifties out there at some point. With, gasp, rain. At least the jacket looked good.

_'World, meet the New and Improved Xander Harris,'_ went through his mind as he looked himself over in his dresser mirror. _'Funny, the New Xander Harris looks a lot like the __Old__ Xander Harris, only in a costume. Indiana Harris: just add water and fedora.'_

Actually, it didn't look all that bad, even if he did feel... _weird_ in the outfit. After running a brush through his slightly shaggy hair, he slung his book bag over one shoulder by a strap, and grabbed a pair of new brown Timberline hikers from the floor of his closet to finish off.

Shoes in hand, he headed out and downstairs in his stocking feet to avoid making noise. A low rasping buzz from the slightly open door to his parents room announced that at least his mom had made it upstairs and into bed last night.

On the first floor, sounds of harsh snoring mixed with the low sounds of the living room television caused him to slow abruptly. Walking carefully, he padded almost silently across the threadbare carpeting past the couch where his dad lay sprawled out. Mouth open, a nearly empty gin bottle still dangling from one hand, and a horrible noise coming out. Welcome to Chez Harris. Please don't wake the beast. Stifling a sudden and almost terrifyingly strong urge to clonk his sleeping dad in the temple with the heavy hikers and not stop until the noise did, Xander shook his head sourly and slipped on past through the dining room and into the kitchen.

His dad hadn't been exactly thrilled with the younger Harris dropping out of sight for several weeks without coming home, only to immediately take off for several days again. Honestly, Xander had been amazed they'd even noticed. It hadn't gotten violent, but it had gotten _loud_ after he'd come back from Lake Cachuma. The slurred and sarcastic lectures on 'responsibility' and 'lack of discipline' had only finally trailed off after Xander had surprised and placated his old man with a small - and grudgingly handed over - 'donation' from what he was quickly starting to think of as his nest egg as well as his road trip fund. A tightly rolled green pathway out of his parents house as soon as he thought he could manage something elsewhere. It didn't thrill him to picture a hundred or so of his summer wages and vamp raiding efforts rapidly disappearing into Hank's Liquor Mart.

Muttering under his breath, he rummaged through the refrigerator for something to grab for lunch later. _Breakfast_ he'd snag on the way from the small deli-slash-donut shop a dozen or so blocks from Sunnyhell High: he wasn't about to risk waking up his folks by even quietly rattling pots and pans to fix something.

Under the ministrations of a chef's knife, one of his mom's rare forays into the world a cooking - a stringy and slightly tough pot roast - yielded a thick pile of paper thin slices to go between a couple of slabs of leftover sourdough. Slathered with ketchup and horseradish and some pickle slices, it'd probably stay edible enough to get him through the day until they could hit the diner after school. He snickered quietly: left to its own devices, his mom's pot roast would probably stay edible through nuclear winter. Or at least as edible as it had started out, anyway. Almost as an afterthought, he added a couple of PBnJ on white sandwiches for break time snacks. Ready to go.

Closing the door behind him and putting his shoes on outside, Xander Harris eased out the back to head down the driveway towards school and his friends. Suddenly, a new school year actually didn't seem like such a bad thing.

Amazing what contrasts could do for your attitude.

**...**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sunnydale, Chase manor, early morning.**_

Showered, hair neatly coiffed, and makeup applied, Cordelia Chase spent only a brief period of time perusing the contents of her closet before drawing out the ensemble she'd decided on the night before. Spent a couple of hours deciding on, actually. It was _critical_ to make just the _right_ impressions on the first day back, especially if she didn't want her downward social mobility to continue.

A pair of flowing yet tight-in-all-the-right-places designer slacks went on over slightly tinted hose. A tight, cream colored pull-over shirt went above that, cut low enough to show just the right amount of cleavage, with a darker, wrap around blouse over that. Expensive low boots and a light weight jacket completed the look, with a perfectly matching handbag. _'__Just__ right,'_ she thought, giving herself a critical once over in her room's full length mirror. She grinned, giving her reflected perfection the patented Chase thousand watt smile. _'Take __that__, world. Cordelia Chase is ready for you.'_

A slight frown creased her forehead, dimming the smile a bit as the thought crossed her mind of what Xander might choose to show up in. Surely, given their new understandings, her boyfriend would understand the importance of presenting a united front to the rest of the school. But... she wasn't _quite_ willing to bet on it. Xander was given to odd moments of stubbornness and self-destructive rebellion at the most inconvenient of times. The smile dimmed to an even lower wattage as her mind supplied her with fairly accurate renditions of Harmony and the various Cordette's probably comments and reactions through the day, once they discovered that Cordelia really hadn't sensibly dumped the 'Harris loser' over the summer.

Well, screw that. She'd _meant_ every word she'd told Harmony Kendall last year when she'd made the decision to continue seeing Xander. It's not like she was going to waffle and let the opinion of _sheep_ matter to her after everything. And, at least, Aura and Tamara were still friendly with her, so it's not like she was going to be left _completely_ out in the cold. She'd still have _some_ semblance of a worthwhile social life, whatever happened.

Cordelia's chin came up and her eyes hardened. No going back. A _Chase_ didn't retreat from a decision, not once it was made for perfectly good reasons. And _especially_ not to placate mere followers. Giving her reflection a decisive nod, and wishing secretly she _felt_ as decisive as she looked, she firmed the smile back up to full wattage and grabbed her handbag and book bag to head downstairs.

Sweeping into the dining room, Cordelia gave her father a peck on the cheek, followed by one for Daddy's wife, before settling down at the table. Rosa set a cup of freshly brewed Kona with just the right amount of cream before her, and Cordelia gave her a warm 'thank you' smile before turning a brighter one on her parents.

"Good morning Daddy," Cordelia said. "Mother," she nodded to her other parent.

"Morning, Princess," Randall Chase returned the smile with interest, his eyes crinkling at the corners in the way that only Cordelia seemed to get from him. That eye crinkle always made her feel ten years old and the center of her Daddy's attention in a way that never failed to cause her to forgive his frequent absences in other areas of her life. "You look wonderful this morning," he said. "Ready for the first day back?"

"Definitely," Cordelia agreed. "Stand back, Sunnydale, the Chase is coming through."

"That's the ticket," Randall stated. "Knock 'em dead, Princess."

"Is there any other way?" Cordelia smirked, getting a laugh before her father immersed himself in the Wall Street Journal again. She started in on her breakfast.

"Not to my knowledge," her mother said, laughing. "You do look very stylish, dear," she added in an approving tone. "By the way - there's a small thing at the country club this afternoon. Any possibility you might be able to join us?"

Cordelia frowned slightly, chewing at her lower lip a bit before shaking her head with just the right amount of regret. "Afraid not. I kind of had plans for after school and this evening."

"Hmm." The older woman tilted her head slightly, studying Cordelia a bit before frowning thoughtfully. "With that Harris boy? Really, Cordelia, while a casual dalliance or two is to be expected at your age, don't you think you're getting a bit serious with this... infatuation? You _must_ think to your future, you know."

"Hmm," Cordelia said, covering with a sip from her coffee cup while studying the other woman in turn. "I'm not certain 'infatuation' is the right word. And I do think of my future all the time, Mother."

The 'Mother' was a courtesy long ago agreed upon between Cordelia and her father. Privately she thought of Teresa Chase as 'Daddy's Third', as in the second marriage following her real mother's death when she was very little, but she'd never dream of letting the phrase cross her lips either to the other woman or elsewhere. And, Teresa at least was nice, if in a bit distant of a fashion. She seemed to have genuine affection for Cordelia, and for Cordelia's father. She'd stayed with Randall Chase from the time Cordelia was eight, _much_ longer than Wife Number Two, who'd breezed out almost as quickly as she'd breezed into their lives. That alone was worth a bit of respect.

"Well, as long as you know what you're doing, Cordelia," Teresa allowed, finally. "Based on what Gloria Kendall's mentioned of her daughter's commentary, this relationship can't be doing much for your standing in your social circles, dear."

Cordelia arched an eyebrow, "The Chases are basing our decisions around the opinions of the Kendalls, now?" Cordelia said with just the right amount of derision. "I remember when it used to be rather the other way around."

That drew a full fledged frown, followed by a grudging nod of acceptance. "It's just that there are so many eligible young men to be had," Teresa stated, not completely willing to concede the round.

"Yes," Cordelia said. "All of whom are more interested in my status or Daddy's money than in me," she stated, turning back to her meal. "Whereas at least Xander's interests are more the other way direction."

"You should bring him to dinner some evening," Randall Chase put in, a bit unexpectedly. "We should at least re-meet the young knight who's captured the Princess," he said, turning the page on his paper. Giving her a glance over the top of the investments section, he added, "It's been a long time since you've had Alexander over - it might be nice to see how he's changed."

Cordelia froze momentarily, resisting the impulse to gape at her father. Swallowing her last bit of English muffin, she washed it down with a sip of coffee before saying, "That might be a good idea. Let's work up to it a bit first, though - I don't want you to terrorize him just yet."

Randall Chase gave her a sharp look over the top of his paper, then grinned. "Oh, come on. I wouldn't do that. Much."

"Sure you wouldn't, Daddy," Cordelia grinned back at him. "Let me guess: formal dinner party with the Mayor and your buddy the Sheriff, with you grilling poor Xander about his intentions and prospects as he slowly wilts before fleeing."

"I think she has you there, Randall," Teresa said, laughing.

"Damned women," Randall Chase grumbled. "You know me too well." He nodded to his daughter, "All right. Nice intimate dinner at some point in the future when Teresa and I are both in town. You pick the time and place."

"Works," Cordelia said. Her eyes widened slightly, and she cocked her head with an inquisitive expression. "You're leaving again?"

"Not right away, no," Randall Chase said. "But in a couple of weeks to a month, at the most, probably."

"Your father and I need to make a trip to Washington to see to some business," Teresa added, with a glance at Cordelia's father.

"All right," Cordelia said, nodding. Suppressing a sigh, she pushed back her plate and stood from the table. "Well, time for school."

Gathering her bag and book bag, she headed out to the sound of her parent's rather abstracted 'so longs'. She was both more firmly certain of her earlier decision to see her choices through, and more nervous about the practical considerations involved with doing so.

Amazing what a bit of tacit parental disapproval could do for your attitude.


	2. Chapter 1: School Daze

_**"Mortal Friends, Mortal Foes"**_

**Episode 1**

**"Terminate and Stay Resident"**

_by Ironbear_

**Starring:**

Elisha Dushku as "Faith"

Anthony Stewart Head as "Rupert Giles"

Nicholas Brendan as "Alexander 'Xander' Harris"

Charisma Carpenter as "Cordelia Chase"

Alyson Hannigan as "Willow Rosenberg"

Seth Green as "Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne"

**Co-Starring:**

Kristine Sutherland as "Joyce Summers"

Saverio Guerra as "Willy the Snitch"

Danny Strong as "Jonathan Levinson"

Jeff Maynard as "Lance Lincoln"

Keram Malicki-Sánchez as "Freddy Iverson"

Armin Shimerman as "Principal R. Snyder"

**Guest Starring:**

Persia White as "Aura"; Raina Simone Moore as "Tamara"; Mercedes McNab as "Harmony Kendall"; Jason Hall as "Devon MacLeish"; Elizabeth Anne Allen as "Amy Madison"; Blake Swendson as "Michael Czajak"; Danielle Fishell as "Stacey Morrison"; Price Jackson as "Blayne Moll"; Larry Bagby II as "Larry Blaisdell"; Fab Filippo as "Scott Hope"; Christopher Wiehl as "Owen Thurman"; Ethan Erickson as "Percy West"; Channon Roe as "Jack O'Toole"; Scott Torrence as "Dickie"; Darrin Heames as "Parker"; Brian Gross as "Tor Hauer"; Jennifer Sky as "Heidi Barrie"; D.W. Moffett as "Randall Chase the Third"; Jessica Lundy as "Teresa Chase"

Lou Diamond Phillips as "Dacascos"; Donnie Yen as "Ice"; Ron Perlman as "Benedikt Lohse"; Karel Roden as "Rhoden"

and

Kim Kardashian as "Rochelle"

"_If I'm back here at a reunion in twenty years talking about how wonderful high school was, just shoot me."_ ~ Ori Swords

**Chapter 1: School Daze -**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sunnydale High School, early morning.**_

Spotting Oz lounging against one of the rails along the front sidewalk, Willow changed course so she angled to meet him. "Hey! You came to meet me," she said, happily. "That's sweet." Taking in his outfit and everything with it, she grinned, "And you brought books. Are those for me?"

"Well, that's kind of a thing," Oz said. "Actually, they're kind of for me."

Frowning slightly, Willow said, "I don't get it."

"Well, it's sort of a funny story," Oz shrugged. Putting his free arm around her, he walked with her towards the school steps. "You remember when I didn't graduate?"

"Yeah... " Willow said, slowly. "Well, I know you had a lot of incompletes, but that's what summer school was for."

"Yeah, that. Well, you remember when I didn't go?" Oz remarked. A couple of students ran past them, heading up the steps, and they broke apart, stepping to one side to keep from being jostled.

"But you never said anything," Willow said. "How am I supposed to react to this rather alarming news?"

"Well, actually, I was pretty much banking on you finding it 'cute'," Oz stated.

"Well, traditionally, you know, repeating a grade isn't exactly a turn-on," Willow said, frowning. "A-and you're practically a genius. You're Mr. Test Scores. I-it's all a little weird," she added.

"So the 'cute' thing is out, then?" Oz's eyebrows went up slightly.

"I'm trying to get to cute, really. But I'm still sorta stuck on 'strange' and 'bizarre'," Willow admitted. She thumped him suddenly on the arm, "And hey! You didn't think to mention this all last week? A-an-and all summer?"

"Ow," Oz said. He rubbed his arm with a slight smile, "Well, I'd be willing to bargain down to 'eccentric' with an option on 'cool'." He shrugged again, "And, sorry. It just didn't seem to come up." Leaning against one of the stair posts, he gave her a somewhat apologetic look.

"How could it not come up?" Willow said, scowling. "Well, I mean, we were busy with a-all the, weirdness and all, but hey - you could have worked it in." A loud engine growl and screech of tires from the direction of the front lot interrupted her, drawing both their attention. Looking over, Willow spotted Cordelia getting out of a silvery looking sports car after pulling it into a space.

"It's the Cordy," Oz said.

"Don't change the subject, buster," Willow grumbled, but she leaned into him to wait for their other friend to come up the walk. After checking her hair, Cordelia drew out her bag and book bag and slammed the door shut with a hip, then headed towards the school.

"Hey guys," she said as she drew up to Oz and Willow. "Seen Xander yet?"

"Not yet," Willow said. "We're kinda hanging out waiting for him before going in. Hey, how was the lake trip?"

"Oh - really good," Cordelia stated, flashing her the high wattage smile. Pausing, a very slight crease formed between her eyebrows and she looked a bit distracted, as if trying to remember something, then shook her head and turned her attention back to them. "Spent the week riding and out on the lake. _Really_ nice change from all this."

Larry and a small group of other jocks pushed through toward the steps, causing students to scatter around them. Cordelia stepped slightly closer to Oz to let them go by.

"This is gonna be our _year_, I'm _telling_ you. Best football season ever. I'm so in shape, I'm a rock," Larry said. He slapped Owen on the shoulder as they came up. "It's all about the egg whites, man. If we can focus, keep discipline, and not have quite as many mysterious deaths, Sunnydale is _so_ gonna _**rule**_!" Pausing as they went by, he looked over, "Hey, Cordy."

"Hey Larry," Cordelia nodded to him. "Guys."

"Looking good, Queen C," Larry gave her an appreciative look, "Ready to knock their socks off cheering us on to State this year?"

"Socks knocking all planned out," Cordelia said, agreeing. "Go Razorbacks."

"Really think you guys'll make State this year?" Oz asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Hey, it's in the bag," Percy said, grinning. He slugged Blayne playfully on the shoulder, "We just need a few good games, right?" Laughing, the group of them crowded on past, heading up the stairs.

"Power of positive thinking," Oz said, deadpan.

"And with just a _few_ less mysterious deaths," Cordelia added.

Willow giggled, then flushed slightly. "That's not funny, really," she said in a disapproving tone. The slight grin lurking at the corner of her lips spoiled the disapproval, though.

"I know. But it's either laugh or get all depressed and you _know_ what _that_ does to your complexion," Cordelia said.

"Bad things," Oz stated. "So, new car?" Lifting an eyebrow, he angled his head toward the parking lot.

"Oh yeah! Mercedes!" Cordelia's grin brightened. "Daddy surprised me with it when I got back. Isn't it great?"

"Sharp," Willow said. "But - I thought you already had a convertible?"

"That was Daddy's, he just let me use it," Cordelia stated. "This one is all mine." Glancing at her watch, she looked up towards the school and then back, "I'll show it off to everyone later. I'm going to go in and mingle before first bell rings," she said. "Tell Xander I'm inside somewhere when he gets here?"

"Uh, sure," Willow said. She shook her head as the cheerleader strode off up the steps, disappearing between other students. "Ok," Willow said, turning back to Oz, "So _about_ this secret life as a flunky-guy you've been keeping from me... "

**................................................**

Winded just a little from the exertion of the jog to school, Xander slowed to an amiable stroll as he hit the sidewalk past the front parking lots of Sunnydale High. Looking around as he went up the front walk, he spotted Willow and Oz standing near the front doors with several students and headed that direction.

"Hey, Will," Xander gave his friend a slight nudge with his shoulder and a half grin as he slipped in next to her and Oz. "Oz, Ames," he gave Amy a friendly nod as well.

Amy frowned slightly and glanced away, not returning the nod. Willow grinned up at him, bumping him back.

"Hey, stranger," Willow chirped. "Made it with a-a whole forty minutes to spare even, wow."

"You know me, all about the learning thing," Xander said.

"Right," Willow said, shaking her head. "You know Michael, right?"

Xander cocked his head slightly, studying the slightly goth looking teen standing between Amy and another girl. The second girl, a dark, dark blonde that he vaguely recognized from the drill team, gave him a friendly grin and a nod.

"Yeah," Xander said, giving the guy a slight grin. "Well, in a kind of a 'seen him around but never met him' not really rememberish kind of way," he added.

"I get that a lot," the goth looking male said. "Michael Czajak," he added. He put his hand out and Xander shook it.

"Xander Harris. Otherwise known as 'Xander'."

Amy looked at Willow, still ignoring Xander. "Well, see you later Will," she said. "Michael, everyone - we'll get together at lunch, right?"

"You bet," Willow bobbed her head in agreement. With a smile at Willow, Oz, and the others, Amy turned and went inside.

"Huh. What's with Amy and the ice shoulderness?" Xander asked, looking to his friends.

"Oh. I think she's still kinda mad about that, that _thing_, you know?" Willow said. She looked a bit embarrassed. Oz nodded in agreement.

"Oh, that thing, right," Xander made a face. "I really need to do something about that thing."

"Probably wouldn't hurt," Oz allowed. He added, "Cordy was looking for you. Said she'd be inside making with the mingles."

"Really?" Xander's face brightened. "Cool."

"Hey," the other girl said, finally. "Since no one's going to introduce us," she put her hand out, "I'm Stacey."

"Stacey?" Xander took her hand briefly, giving her a lopsided grin. "Good to meetcha. Xander." Cocking his head slightly, he added, "You're new, aren't you?"

"Uh huh," Stacey said. "We moved here from Phoenix last year," she added, hooking her arm through Michael's. "I'm Michael's girl friend." Michael gave her a shy looking smile.

"Good deal. Hope you like Sunnydale," Xander said. "So," he started, looking at Willow again, "Ready to face our last year of Evil High School?"

"Oh yeah," Willow said, grinning. "Only not so much with the evil, and more with the high school." Leaning back slightly, she took in Xander's appearance, "Wow. The new look is kinda working for you, Xan."

"Really?" Xander's eyebrows went up slightly. "Hey, out with the lame, in with the new Xanderness."

"Yup," Oz said, nodding. "Got that Allen Quartermaine thing going."

"I was shooting more for 'Indiana Harris', but I'll take it," Xander said. "Well," he looked around at his friends, and the other pair, "I'm gonna head inside and see if I can find the Queen before we get swept up in sign-ups and scheduling. Gotta pay the homage."

**................................................**

"Hey, Shane," Jonathan Levinson called out as, side stepping a group of jocks going by. "Hold up."

"Hey, Levinson," the younger teen stopped by some lockers, waiting for Jonathan to catch up. "What's up?"

"Not much. Getting ready to survive another year," Jonathan said. "You still up for coming over tonight to give me a hand with that, uh, coding project?"

"Guess so," Shane shrugged. "What's this for anyway?"

"Uh," Jonathan blinked, thinking rapidly. "Game AI mock up I'm trying to work out. Going to use it as a demo later, maybe. Y'know - after Graduation?"

"Oh - thinking about going into the game industry?" Shane pushed his glasses up farther, grinning. "That is _so_ cool. What kind of game?"

Jonathan shrugged. "Nothing major, really. Just a 3D interactive demo to show off some AI concepts. Uh, you know - interactive model that, uh, responds to input." Frowning, he added, "Mostly finished. Just have a few last bugs and tweaks to work out."

"Ok, sure. Can't wait to look at it," Shane stated. Looking past Jonathan's shoulder, his eyes widened slightly behind his glasses. "Uh... "

"Beat it, four eyes," a rough voice spoke from over Jonathan's shoulder as he felt a fist grab his collar. "Me and Jonno here need to do some business."

"Uh, hey, Jack," Jonathan said, weakly. The school bully and his two friends grinned down at him.

Jack gave him a rough shake of the collar. "Let's go for a walk, Levinson," he said, starting to pull Jonathan down the hall. "We need to talk."

**................................................**

Inside the doors, he worked his way through the milling clusters of students, nodding at people he knew and craning his head around hoping to catch a glimpse of his girlfriend. Paying more attention to his visual search than his direction, he almost plowed over Harmony and her coterie. Aura and the other black girl, Tamara, gave him slight nods, Tamara's a bit less unfriendly than the others.

"Hey, watch it, _loser_," the blonde cheerleader snarled at him, stepping out of the way. "Oh, it's Harris," she said, her eyes widening slightly. "Gone blind as well as stupid?"

"Hey, Harm," Xander smirked at her. "Don't tell me, let me guess: your new line of fall slut wear took off and you couldn't _wait_ to model it for the scrimmage line."

Harmony's eyes narrowed slightly, narrowing even more when Tamara gave a slight snicker. "I see your mom started shopping at a slightly more upscale place. What happen - she move up from her old job at WalMart?" Harmony's voice took on a rather venomous sweetness. Seeing the impeding collision, the other former Cordettes, now Harmonettes, moved away slightly.

Xander grinned. Compared to Cordelia's acid wit, Harmony was a cakewalk. "Ouch. I'm wounded," Xander rolled his eyes comically, placing his hand over his heart. "I'm sure you had lots of time to think that one up playing choo-choo with the basketball team."

One of the other girls, Joy, he thought, tittered slightly at the reference to a rumored party incident from last year. Harmony's expression went somewhat blank as she puzzled it out, then an outraged expression crossed it.

"Oooh," she stuck her chin in the air. "I've wasted enough time on you, Lame-O," she said, eying him dismissively. She swept past him with a last scalding glance, the rest of the Harmonettes trailing along.

Snickering under his breath, Xander caught Aura's eye as she went past shaking her head slightly. "Hey - seen Cordelia?"

"She was out near the lounge talking to Larry a bit ago," Tamara suggested. Aura nodded agreement, continuing after Harmony.

Xander nodded a 'thank you' at the girl, heading in the opposite direction. The exchange student-slash-transferee didn't seem nearly as stuck up as the rest of Cordelia's friends, or former friends. And Aura had been almost civil to him, even if not actually talkative.

A tour of the student lounge turned up no Cordelia. One of the basketball players thought he'd seen her heading toward the cafeteria. A circle of the lunchroom also produced no Cordelia. Someone _there_ suggested she might be out by the Quad now, and Xander headed in that direction, shaking his head. He was starting to wonder if he'd actually _see_ his girlfriend before the bell rang and it was time to start sorting out class schedules and picking up books.

As he headed towards the Quad, a metallic clang and a muffled grunt from a side corridor drew his attention, and he slowed. There was a meaty smack followed by another grunt, and Xander shook his head and turned to go down that hallway.

Coming around the corner, he found Jack O'Toole and three of his buddies surrounding a cowed looking Jonathon Levinson. Tor Hauer and Heidi stood off a slight distance to one side, frowning at the display, but apparently not making any move to intervene. Jonathan gave him a pleading look as Xander stopped and Jack and his two friends looked up, straightening away from the smaller boy.

_'Oh boy,'_ Xander thought. _'I really have had better ideas in my lifetime.'_ Pasting a half grin on his face, he looked past Jack's glare over to Tor and Heidi.

"Hey, Tor," he gave the other teen and former pack member a nod. "What's going on?"

"Hey, Xan," Tor rolled his eyes slightly, looking bored. "Looks to me like Tool's starting the ritual nerd bashing early this year."

Heidi nodded at that. "Hey Harris," she said, managing to look lazy, predatory, and _way_ too sexy all at the same time while leaning into Tor. "You're looking good."

"Naw," Jack cut across in a nasty tone of voice, "Ah'm just reminding Jonno here about our _arrangement_." Putting a grotesque imitation of a friendly arm around the shorter and younger teen's neck, he added, "The arrangement where he helps me with all of my assignments so I don't get sent back again." Jonathan looked about ready to faint as Jack's two buddies grinned at Xander.

_'Ok, now you have their attention,'_ Xander thought. _'This is the time where you usually ask what would Buffy do. Or lately, what would Faith do?'_ Unfortunately, neither question brought much inspiration to him. _Faith_ would probably smirk and send Jack packing through sheer intimidation power. _Buffy_ would pick Jack up and slam him against a locker, probably after decking his two friends.

Neither of which mental image helped much. While Xander had maybe an inch and a half on O'Toole and possibly twenty pounds, _Jack_ had three years and a whole _lot_ of mean on Xander. Not to mention rumors of an awful lot of street fighting experience. The Faith option wasn't very likely either: Xander felt anything _but_ intimidating at the moment. Jonathan gave Xander a slight head shake and an embarrassed 'that's ok' look which made up Xander's mind for him, suddenly.

Swallowing hard, Xander took a step forward, hoping his voice wouldn't quaver when it came out. "Why don't you let Jonathan go, guy?" Surprisingly to himself, his voice came out firm, and even a bit mean sounding.

Jack's eyebrows went up, and one of his pals, Parker-something, stepped up to Xander. "Oh wow," he gave Xander a comically exaggerated curious looking over, smirking. "We got us a regular high school _he_-row," Parker said.

With a sudden movement that wasn't in the least bit telegraphed that Xander noticed, Parker put his hands up and out, shoving Xander hard in the chest. Xander staggered backwards, surprised and off balance.

"Whatcha gonna do to make us, _Xan_?" Parker stepped in again as Xander caught his balance, putting his hands up for another shove.

A clinical part of Xander's brain noted that somehow, facing vamps, demons, and Nightgaunts seemed to be less unnerving than dealing with three overage high school toughs. In a movement inspired more by desperation and sheer terror than by conscious thought, he sidestepped slightly, seeing his right hand come over and across as if it belonged to someone else. With a kind of bizarre detachment, he watched his closed fist smash into Parker's jaw with the full weight of his back and shoulder behind it.

Parker's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and he staggered backwards, crashing to the floor a piece at a time like a marionette with its strings cut. _'Wow,'_ Xander thought, dazedly, _'That was some hit.'_

Rubbing his knuckles and looking down in amazement at Parker, everything suddenly went all awhirl around Xander as he felt a pair of hands grab him by the front of his jacket and spin him around to slam him up against the lockers. He was vaguely aware of Jonathan scuttling out of the way as his head smacked into the steel locker door behind him.

"Oh, wow," Jack stared up at him, his head cocked curiously to one side. "That was really fucking _stupid_, bro. You freaking retarded or something?"

"No, no," Xander managed a weak looking half grin, "But I do gotta wonder sometime, you know?"

Jack pulled him off of the lockers slightly, only to slam him into them again harder than the first time. Releasing Xander's jacket front, he stepped back, only to step in again, bringing his fist around in a short hard arc that ended at Xander's mid section. He stepped back again, leaving Xander clutching his stomach and trying to not either let his knees buckle or throw up.

While admittedly, throwing up all over Jack might be funny in a disgusting sort of way, it was bound to get him talked about. Posthumously, if nothing else. _'I should've gone with the what would Xander do option. Answer being: run like hell.'_

Smirking, Jack looking Xander up and down slowly, one hand going to the edge of his jacket. An alarmed looking Jonathan stood off near the mouth of the hallway, dithering, while a groaning Parker seemed to be slowly coming back to reality.

"Might wanna rethink that, Jack," Tor said in a slow, amused sort of drawl. "Bad idea." He had a very slight smile at the corner of his lips, not matching his otherwise bored expression.

Jack and his other pal, Dickie-something, looked over at Tor and Heidi in surprise. "Turning chickenshit on me, Tor?" Jack asked.

"Wouldn't say that," Tor shook his head, the slight smile broadening just a hair. "Wouldn't say that at _all_," Tor added. Idly, Xander wondered exactly how someone like Tor could manage to project quite so much menace without ever really changing expression or posture. Also, if it was possible to take lessons in it.

"Leaning on the geek's one thing," Heidi said in an equally bored tone. She seemed to have that casual menace thing down too. It was enough to make Xander wonder suddenly just how much, if anything, the two of them had retained from the hyena experience. Heidi smirked, "But you pull steel on Harris, things're likely to get kinda ugly."

"And no one wants to to get tossed out on their first day of school, right?" Tor suggested, straightening slightly.

"Ahhh," Jack broke eye contact with Tor with a disgusted expression. Reaching out, he casually slammed Xander back against the lockers. "We're not done, Harris," he suggested.

"Oh look, male bonding," a disturbingly familiar feminine voice called out. Xander groaned, less from the shove than from recognizing Harmony's voice. Laughing, she swept on down the hallway, the various Harmonettes trailing after. Aura bit her lip slightly, then shook her head and followed after.

Hauling up Parker by an arm, Jack swaggered out of the hallway into the school, trailed by Dickie and the still somewhat dazed Parker. Parker shot Xander a poisonous look as he shoved Jonathan out of the way without so much as a glance. The three of them pushed through the various students wandering by, disappearing into crowds.

Straightening, Xander cringed inside a bit wondering, _'Could this day just __get__ any better?'_ He managed a shaky nod at Tor as he and Heidi started past. "Nice punch, Xan," Tor said, giving a laugh that had a slight cackle to it.

"Thanks," Xander said, meaning the slight assist, not the compliment.

"No probs," Tor shook his head, pushing out past Harmony. "Gotta take care of your own, right?"

"Uh, thanks, Xander," Jonathan offered. "For trying, at least."

"Don't mention it, really," Xander said in a sour voice. Pushing himself up off of the lockers, he let go of his stomach, making an apologetic gesture to the other teen. "Sorry. You ok?"

"Yeah, mostly," Jonathan said. "Jack just kinda swatted me around a bit making threats before you showed up."

"Good, I guess," Xander allowed. "Hey - you wouldn't have happened to see Cordelia anywhere, huh?"

"Uh, no, not recently," Jonathan said. Right then the first bell rang, announcing time for everyone to start class and scheduling sign ups.

"Oh, great," Xander said, rolling his eyes. "And school's not even gotten _started_ yet."

***********************************


	3. Chapter 2: Lateral Mobility

**Chapter 2: Lateral Mobility -**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sunnydale High School, late late morning.**_

After a long morning spent working out schedules, getting books together, and then preliminary classes, Cordelia Chase was _so_ far past ready for the school year to be over already that it wasn't funny. Passing verbal broadsides exchanged with her former friend, Harmony, hadn't helped her mood any. Nor had seeing that Harmony had replaced her with Joy.

With a sigh, she nailed down a side table in the lunchroom, setting her student lounge microwaved lunch down along with her soda. At the very least, Harris should be along shortly to keep her company in her misery. If nothing _else_ went right today, she at least wasn't having to eat cafeteria food. Judging from the trays of semi-identifiable glop going past, and various student's dubious expressions, 'mystery meal' seemed to be the order of the day on that front.

"Hey, stranger," a familiar voice said over her shoulder. Glancing around, she was pleasantly surprised to see Aura and Tamara standing at the end of her table with their own deli trays. "Mind if we join you?"

Cordelia arched an eyebrow. "What, get separated from the thundering herd?"

Aura laughed, "Something like that."

"More like we cut out of the herd as it bleated on," Tamara said. Glancing at Aura, she added, "We suddenly remembered we signed on to be _Cor_dettes, not Harmonettes."

"Well, sure," a wide grin broke out over Cordelia's face. "Always room for more in the rebellion."

"Cue Rebel Fanfare," Aura said, pulling out a chair and seating herself. Tamara nodded, hooking out a chair for herself and setting her meal down.

"So, what brought on the dissension in the ranks?" Cordelia asked, curious.

"Oh, this and that," Tamara shrugged. "Mostly, we decided we didn't like Harmony's attitude after we came across your Harris and that little Jonathan guy getting pounded on by that psycho Jack O'Toole." Cordelia's eyes widened.

"Yeah," Aura agreed. "It's _one_ thing to keep the plebians firmly in their place. It's _another_ to laugh over someone's near death experience, you know?"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Cordelia said. "Back up. O'Toole? Three time senior repeater and poster boy for 'most likely to have a cell mate named Bubba' O'Toole? Pounding on _Xander_?"

"You didn't hear?" Aura's eyebrows went up. "Harmony was practically chortling over it to everyone who'd stand still long enough. Harris didn't tell you?"

"No, the Doofus," Cordelia frowned. "He didn't."

"Jonathan's buddy, Lance, said Jonathan said O'Toole was leaning on him and Harris told them to lay off," Tamara said, grinning. She leaned forward conspiratorially, "Then he _supposedly_ decked Parker before Jack tore into him."

"Uh huh. Out _cold_ decked. And it made Lance's _week_ to have us actually asking him questions," Aura laughed. "Jonathan said Tor Hauer called it off before it got ugly."

"Wow," Cordelia took a drink from her soda, shaking her head. "He didn't look much worse for wear in the two classes we had together. And he didn't say _anything_."

"Well, would _you_ if you got slammed going up against the school cut throat?" Tamara asked. "He was probably embarrassed."

"Cordy," Xander's voice came from just behind her. "Who's embarrassed?"

Cordelia turned her chair around somewhat so she could glare up at him. Kicking the chair next to her out with her foot, she pointed at it, "_Sit_, Dorkus." Wide eyed, Xander sat almost absently. Cordelia grabbed him by the jacket collar and pulled him in for a long kiss, then pushed him back and belted him in the shoulder, still glaring.

"Oww!" Xander's expression was shell shocked by the sudden whiplash. "What was _that_ for?" He glared back, confused.

"For _not_ telling me you almost got killed this morning, idiot," Cordelia said. Tamara snickered, and Xander looked back between her, a grinning Aura, and his girlfriend, light slowly dawning on him.

"Gee, thanks gals," he said, rubbing his shoulder. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to get _you_ decked by Cordelia sometime."

"Oh, please," Aura said, still smirking at him. "It was bound to get back to her sooner or later."

Xander snorted, rolling his eyes. "Shouldn't you two be following Harmony around with the others, bleating?"

"Don't tell anyone," Tamara said in a stage whisper, leaning forward, "But we're staging a rebellion."

Xander made a production out of slowly looking around the crowded lunchroom, then stared at her, "I think the secret's probably gonna get out."

"Darn," Tamara stared accusingly at Aura, who shrugged. "_You_ said no one would notice."

"Nooo, I said _Harmony_ was too dim to notice," Aura corrected her.

"Hey guys," a new voice broke in from the end of the table. Cordelia looked over, frowning slightly, to see one of the newer girls on the SHS drill team standing there with a lunch tray. "Hey Xander," she added. "What's up?"

"Hey, Stacey," Xander said, glad for the interruption. Cordelia looked from the girl to Xander, both of her eyebrows climbing steadily as she leaned back, folding her arms. "Uh," he looked at Cordelia, "This is Michael's girlfriend, you know, Willow's friend."

"Right," Cordelia said, her tone slightly arctic. She dismissed him from her attention, turning to the other girl, and gave her a broad smile, "Nothing much. We were just discussing my boyfriend's imminent demise."

"Uh oh," Stacey said, her eyes widening. "Sounds serious - what'd he do?"

"Committed first degree doofussery," Cordelia stated, "With a side order of suicidal bravery, it sounds like." With a casual glance to Aura and Tamara, who indicated no preference via slightly arched eyebrows or shrugs, Cordelia gestured to the unoccupied end of the table. "Care to join us?"

"Uh, sure," Stacey said. Setting her tray down, she hooked over a chair and pulled it in. "Suicidal doofussery, huh? We talking death penalty offense?"

"Hey!" Xander broke in, finally, "Let's not discuss my death in such cheerful tones, right?"

"Idiot," Cordelia turned her attention back to him, "Jack's going to _kill_ you once he gets around to it. What were you _thinking_? _Were_ you thinking?"

"Uh, and hey!" Xander said, "I've faced... " with a quick glance around the table at the other three, he lowered his voice slightly, "Uh, worse things than Jack and handled it!"

"Well," Cordelia grumbled, unable to quite argue the point without bringing up things the rest of the group shouldn't hear about. "But if you end up in traction I'm _so_ not going to nursemaid you, get it?"

"Jack O'Toole?" Stacey asked. "I heard about that." At Cordelia's inquiring look, she shrugged, "Jonathan and his friends sit ahead of me in trig and they were talking about it."

"Seems like everyone but _me_ heard the latest gossip about _my_ boyfriend," Cordelia said, scowling. Shaking her head, she looked the other girl over, "You're relatively new here, right?"

"Right, kinda," Stacey agreed, nodding. "Moved here last year around early November. From Phoenix."

Nodding, Cordelia indicated the rest of the table. "I'm Cordelia. That's Aura, Tamara, and you seem to have already met Xander. Welcome to the rebellion."

"Cool. What are we rebelling against?" Stacey asked.

"It's a secret," Tamara said. "We'd tell you, but then we'd have to ostracize you."

"Pay them no mind," Xander said, smirking. "They're just giddy from having escaped Harmony's clutches." Aura and Tamara looked at each other, mouthing, 'giddy?'. Xander went on, oblivious, "How come you're not eating lunch with Michael and Willow? Err... where are Michael and the Willster?"

"Oh, they had something involving some club thing they're setting up with Amy," Stacey said. "I'll hook up with Michael later."

"Well, if it isn't the human punching bag," Harmony's voice cut across from the end of the table, just behind Stacey. She stopped to smirk at Xander, the rest of her flock gathering around her. "And Cordelia! So _sad_ to see your downward mobility is ongoing. Not bad enough you hooked up with the freak brigade, _now_ you're even hanging with drill team members."

"Bite me, Harmony," Cordelia said, smiling. Stacey's eyes went slightly wide, and she ducked a bit in her chair to lower herself from the line of fire. Cordelia had a glint in her eye that suggested impending mayhem, verbal or otherwise. "Tsk," she said, shaking her head in mock sadness, "Barely a day into school, and you're _already_ hemorrhaging Cordettes."

Harmony's eyes narrowed. "No great loss," she said airily, putting a hand on Joy's arm. "Traitors are easily replaced."

"Like _that'll_ last," Cordelia said. Turning to Aura, she arched an eyebrow, "Guess it's true what Owen said. Harmony can't hang onto anything she doesn't have her legs wrapped around."

Xander's eyes widened, and he almost choked on a swig of soda. "_You've_ been hanging around Faith too much," he suggested, laughing. Cordelia ignored him to focus on Harmony, but her lips twitched at the comment.

"Ahhh," Harmony blew out her breath angrily, almost stamping her foot in outrage. Turning her glare on Aura and Tamara, she said, "And to think you two had the chance to stay at the cool table and blew it."

"Girlfriend," Aura said, shaking her head slowly. "Wherever we are _is_ the cool table."

"Oooh," tossing her head, Harmony spun on her heel and flounced down the cafeteria aisle, trailing her remaining groupies.

"That was mean," Tamara observed.

Aura nodded, "Felt good, though."

"Jeeze," Stacey straightened in her seat again. "Is the atmosphere always lethal around here?"

"No," Xander shook his head, grinning at Cordelia. "Sometimes, they get vicious." Cordelia grinned back at him.

**................................................**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sunnydale High School library, late morning/early afternoon.**_

Despite his frequent comments and complaints to Xander and the rest of his young charges, Rupert Giles greatly preferred the bulk of the school year at SHS when his library was a place to be shunned by the general run of students, only to be ventured into when needing books for a paper or assignment. The days at the very beginning of the year when his sanctum would be invaded by hordes of students seeking textbooks and other materials for class sign ups came with an unwelcome flurry of chaos that disrupted his precise and comforting routines. And, as he re-shelved yet another book some miscreant had left casually parked in an out of the way location once they'd finished looking at it, left a trail of havoc that offended his hard won sense of order.

_'Good God,'_ Giles thought, pausing as the realization struck him. _'I've become my father. When on __earth__ did that happen?'_ Bemused, he pushed his spectacles farther back on his nose as he reflected upon the derision that his younger self would have heaped upon such musings.

_'Of course, my younger self was a self avowed barbarian interested only in anarchy and chaos,'_ he reflected. _'Order, calm, and peacefulness was something to be avoided at all costs, or to be shattered whenever possible with a cacophony of sounds and ill directed fury.'_

Chuckling quietly to himself, he resumed the process of restoring his demesne to order. Now that the first day morning sign ups were completed, the library was once more among the ranks of locations to be visited only when it couldn't be avoided as the majority of students resumed their routines of classes, lunch, athletics, and various unapproved activities. The next few days would bring an ever decreasing flurry of morning activity as late coming students enrolled or showed for registration, dwindling away as soon, everyone that was going to be had gotten their texts and settled in. Soon, the only on-going disruptions would be the small group of self professed 'Scoobies' and their friends, and the very few studious academics that this benighted school managed to boast.

A minor disruption that he quite found he no longer minded nor resented. At some point, he'd discovered that he rather enjoyed the periodic invasions of Buffy, Xander, Willow, Cordelia, Oz, and their friends, and now Faith.

So deeply was he immersed in re-shelving and his own musings that he nearly levitated in place when a quiet and amused voice spoke from over his shoulder, "What, locusts hit you, G?"

"Good lord," Giles said. Standing, he straightened his coat and vest and pushed his glasses back into place with a forefinger while glaring down into the very unrepentant expression of his other charge. "I find that I am quite beginning to sympathize with young Harris' admonitions that we should bell you girls."

"Sorry," Faith said, dimpling as a broad grin spread across her face. Looking anything but apologetic, she remarked, "Didn't mean to startle you."

"Quite," Giles said. He found himself returning the grin, reluctantly.

"Ok, well, so I did, actually," Faith admitted. Hopping up on one of the mezzanine side tables, she perched there swinging her legs, giving him an impish look.

"It worked quite well, I assure you," Giles stated, chuckling. "Ah... you do know that as a non-student here, you're not permitted on school property during school hours?"

"Kinda figured," Faith said. Her shrug looked to be completely unconcerned. "The gang all in classes and all?"

Glancing at the wall clock, Giles frowned thoughtfully, "I believe at this point, they should be finishing up lunch and mingling before heading back to preliminary classes, actually. At some point this afternoon, they should have free periods, at which point I'm certain they'll show up here eventually."

"Cool," Faith nodded. Glancing about, she frowned, "Man, even on our worst days in the summer, we didn't trash the place this bad."

Nodding agreement, Giles said, "Luckily you didn't seem to encounter Principal Snyder en route here. Might I ask how you managed to get in?"

"Through the main doors?" Faith gave a vague wave towards the front of the library, then grinned at Giles expression. "Naw. Easy enough. Man... for a place that has a death rate higher than a DC inner school, this place's security sucks." She shook her head, saying, "In Southie, we had metal detectors, roving security, and campus cops - you had to plan skipping and coming back like a commando raid. Here, I just wandered up, joined in with a group of other kids, and trailed on in."

Giles' lips twitched. "I'll refrain from passing your critique onto our Esteemed Troll in the interests of keeping our associates comings and goings relatively unrestricted." Faith laughed, nodding agreement, and Giles removed his glasses, looking at her, "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visitation?"

Faith's lips twitched and she eyed him speculatively. "Started getting bored and figured I'd come here and finish the job."

"Hah!" Laughing, Giles replaced his glasses, conceding the exchange in Faith's favor. After a moments consideration, he realized that after well over a month spent in the almost continual company of himself and the others, she had most likely found herself at loose ends and quite possibly lonesome for company. Not that he would mention that - there was every chance the comment would bring her defensive walls back up, destroying the brief moment of relaxed camaraderie.

Instead, he merely nodded and inquired, "How was your vacation trip with Cordelia and young Harris?"

"Oh, it was way cool, Giles," Faith said. "Spent most of it riding and out on the lake, and nights sitting out and watching Xander grill stuff." She frowned slightly, and her eyes went distant for a long moment, then she shook her head, her dimples coming back as she laughed. "Boy's wicked good with fire and meat."

Giles noted the brief pause, as though the young woman was trying to recall something before dismissing it, and decided to let it pass. "Excellent," he said, "I'm glad that you enjoyed yourselves." He added, "We had a rather uneventful few days here - the majority of it spent with Willow, Oz and their friends helping to get the training area into shape."

"Saw that," Faith stated. "Stopped by on my way here. Looks pretty sharp - can't wait to get to it." Cocking her head slightly, she asked, "You spent most of the week working with them on that?"

"Ah... no, I'm afraid," Giles admitted. "That was almost entirely Oz and Willow's enterprise, to be quite honest. I spent the last several days traveling about California on business."

He winced internally at the sight of Faith's expression shuttering at that. In a deceptively casual and bored voice, she asked, "Oh? Following down leads on B, err, Buffy?"

"Ah, no. Sadly," Giles shook his head, "No new leads as of yet. Rather, I had to follow up on some Council and other business while I had the occasion before school started."

"Oh?" The shuttered expression cleared, and genuine interest came back. "Don't mind my being nosy, what's up?"

"I don't mind at all, quite the contrary." Privately, Giles thought to himself that he rather welcomed Faith's interest in slaying and slaying related business: it made for a welcome change from Buffy's disinterest in such things. "On one of my earlier forays into attempting to mystically locate Buffy through some of my own contacts in the magical community, while no indication of Buffy's whereabouts was found, a couple of previously undiscovered Potentials _did_ surface in the greater California area."

"Huh." Faith frowned slightly. "So they had you go scope them out for the Council?"

"Quite." Giles nodded. His voice took on a dry and accurate impression of Travers supercilious diction, "As I am currently in this area and engaged in matters of no _great_ import, certainly I have _ample_ time on my hands to see to and handle areas of Council interest. And it _does_ rather save time and expenses that would otherwise be required for Council personnel to travel to the US to look into these things, don't you know," he said.

Faith laughed. "Oh, man. Kinda get the impression you're not thrilled with that job, huh?"

"No, actually," Giles smiled tightly, removing his glasses to polish them, "I really don't mind traveling to look over the Potentials for Travers. It's the intimation that the Watcher of an active Hellmouth and Slayer has matters of no greater import than being a-a glorified errand boy to attend to that disturbs me somewhat."

Faith nodded carefully, hiding a grin. "Right," she said. "So, what're they like?"

"The two girls?" Faith nodded and Giles' expression turned introspective for a moment. "One of them is a young teen in Sacramento who is currently engaged in high school and high school athletics. By all appearances, she seems to have an excellent family and be a rather studious and accomplished young lady. The other... the other is a bit of a different story, by what I was able to ascertain."

"Oh?" Faith cocked her head, watching him carefully. "How so?"

Giles frowned. "The other young lady is a sixteen year old currently in residence in one of the State fostering institutions." Faith made a face, and he nodded. "Quite. It seems her parents were killed in an accident some years ago, and she's been in and out of foster homes since."

"Ouch. Been there, did that, sucks," Faith stated. She crossed her arms, looking away. "Any idea what the Council's gonna do with them?"

"Well, actually," Giles admitted, "None whatsoever, really." He paused thoughtfully, replacing his glasses, "The one girl I believe is well placed as she is. I would see no actual benefit to the Council's intrusion into her life at this point. At least, that will be my recommendation. The other... I can't help but suspect that being taken under the care of a Watcher would only be of benefit to her."

"Right." Faith nodded carefully, looking introspective. After a bit she said, slowly, "Y'know, I didn't get a great opinion of the _Council_ from Diana or from the histories and Journals she had me study, but... The Prof taking me out of Belmont Center and adopting me was probably the best thing that could've happened, y'know?"

Once again, Giles hid his internal wince. So Diana Dormer had actually adopted the young girl before being murdered? Giles added that to the mental file he was building, strongly suspecting that it had a great deal to do with Faith's reserve and some of her reactions to the prospect of injury occurring to those helping her.

"Indeed," Giles said, carefully. "Being the ward of a Watcher such as Professor Dormer could only be better than being left to the mercies of that... facility." He was unable to completely keep his distaste for the State home in which he'd visited the Potential out of his voice.

Faith grinned, nodding. Then she frowned slightly and her voice went carefully neutral, "So, think they might assign her to you?"

"Ah... " Giles opened his mouth to respond, then closed it again, studying Faith carefully for a short time. "Probably not," he said, after a moment. "I can't see Travers placing an untrained Potential under the influence of my 'dubious and unconventional methodology' as he might put it."

Faith glanced at him, startled, then grinned. "Quite," she said in an atrocious accent. "Too bad. Girl _could_ do worse."

"Thank you for your unqualified recommendation," Giles said, dryly, and she laughed again. The main doors opened, and two small groups of students entered the library with books, commandeering tables on the lower floor for studies. Glancing down at them, Giles looked at Faith and asked, "Shall we adjourn this to my office? I can always finish my re-shelving at a later time."

"Sure." Hopping down from her perch on the table, Faith followed him down from the mezzanine and into the library's office.

"Might as well leave it open for propriety's sake," Giles said as Faith started to close the door. She nodded and left it ajar, taking a seat at the edge of the office table.

"Locusts hit here too?" Faith asked, glancing at the clutter of papers and pamphlets spread across his desk.

"In a manner of speaking," Giles said. "Some of this is library requisitions and paperwork. Some," he glanced down at the papers, shaking his head, "Are from my so far frustrating attempts at navigating the bizarre and labyrinthine bureaucratic requirements of this benighted State we're in."

He watched as Faith processed that, and then she nodded. "Wading through the red tape, huh? Whatcha trying to get done?"

"Ah... " Giles trailed off, shaking his head ruefully. 'Busted', as Faith might put it. He hadn't _quite_ intended to have this conversation just yet. Cocking his head slightly, he answered her obliquely, "Have you give any thought to the possibilities of your continued education, Faith?" The clumsiness of the question caused him to wince, and he removed his glasses, setting them down on his desk.

"Huh." Faith looked confused for a moment. "Not really. Don't see much point."

That caused Giles to frown, even though he'd expected the response. "Might I inquire as to why not?"

"Well... " Faith hopped down from the table and paced a few times, her hands in her back pockets. By this point, Giles was familiar enough with her mannerisms to be almost certain that as she paced, she was stroking the small Eshu medallion she carried as a good luck charm.

Finally, she stopped, and looked at him from under her eyebrows, with a slight frown. "Hey, Giles. Slayer. Two year shelf life, max. Aim, fire, discard, right? You know the odds as well as I do."

"Well, yes," Giles said, nodding. "However, that's not the case with _every_ slayer."

"Heh. Longest lived Slayer in the histories is what, five years? Most don't last past six months. Kendra made it what... nine months after she was Called? And B - Buffy lasted what, year and a half to two years, and if it hadn't been for Xander and her vamp, she wouldn't have made it any farther." Faith shrugged, giving him an exasperated look.

Giles winced slightly at the mention of Buffy. Faith definitely had Cordelia's knack for being blunt and straightforward at times. "Ten years," he said, finally.

"Huh?"

"Ten years," Giles repeated. "There was a Slayer during the early Renaissance that survived for ten years to be one of the longest lived Slayers in Council history." Looking seriously at Faith, Giles added, "And you have advantages she did not. You have the _potential_ to be one of the most skilled Slayers known and you've inherited an already experienced support group who will no doubt become even more effective once they've trained. You could easily match or exceed that record."

"Well, yeah... " Faith trailed off, looking pleased at the compliment. "Still," she spread her hands, "I can read, write, I know algebra and history, and you've got me studying demon lore and all that. What more do I need?" Her voice was slightly exasperated.

"Well," Giles spread his own hands, "Should you make it ten, five, or even fifteen to twenty years, you'll be well into your twenties or possibly even thirties. I realize that you _may_ not see this now, but at some point, you'll almost certainly wish more out of life than just Slaying and supporting yourself via nest raiding." Based upon his observations of Faith's interactions with her friends, privately Giles was convinced that she already did want more - even if she couldn't perhaps articulate it.

"Yeah... " Faith said, slowly. She made a gesture that took in the library and presumably the school around them. "But, I don't do real well with classrooms and shit, Giles. If I did, I wouldn'ta dropped out, y'know?"

"Ah. Quite," Giles nodded. "I believe you'll find that I possibly have an even lower opinion of what passes for 'educational' institutions in this state than you do." Scowling, he muttered, "Turning out barely literate ignoramuses only marginally capable of higher brain functions, much _less_ higher mathematics and critical thought, before shoving them out into what laughingly passes for institutes of 'higher education' and inflicting them on the rest of the civi- " He broke off suddenly, realizing that Faith was watching him with a bemused and slightly wide-eyed expression. "Ahem."

"Blood pressure, Giles," Faith remarked. "Not a good plan to croak on your Slayer in mid rant." Grinning, she said, "I get that you don't think much of public schools, then."

"Err. Quite," he said, flushing slightly. Gesturing at the papers and pamphlets on his desk, he said, "I had rather had something quite different in mind."

"Oh?" Faith said, her voice suspicious and her eyes hooded. "What?"

"Well," Giles' lips twitched into a slight smile, "What I _had_ been trying to research - with rather small success, I might add - are the requirements in this state for homeschooling. I had rather thought that once we've determined your aptitudes and general levels of knowledge, I could tutor you to the point where you could pass the grade requirement tests and SAT exams."

Faith stared at him. She opened her mouth, closed it again, then cocked her head and stared at him. "You'd do that?"

"Well, yes," Giles stated. "Else I rather fancy I wouldn't be attempting to beat my head against the walls of California bureaucracy," he allowed a faint tone of exasperation to color his voice.

"Uh, yeah," Faith allowed. "Guess not." Lifting her eyebrows, she said, "But you already said you're probably just my interim Watcher. What happens when I get a permanent one and you get kicked to the curb?"

"Your tact is overwhelming. You should consider a later career in diplomacy, Faith," Giles said, dryly. Smirking, Faith acknowledged the statement with a small grin. "Please do give me credit for being thorough, at least," Giles favored his desktop with a rueful look, "If not necessarily expert at this."

"Well, yeah. I think I can manage that," Faith allowed, laughing softly. "So, whatcha got in mind." Her expression was guarded, but not entirely hostile to whatever he might propose.

"Well, to the best that I and my personal solicitor can determine," Giles explained, "California requires home schooling to be done by a parent or designated guardian, or someone with a power of attorney naming them as a responsible individual for a minor. If you were to wish to pursue this, we can fill out the required forms designating you as my ward and giving me legal permission to provide for your education."

"Huh." Faith cocked her head, her eyes wary. "This another attempt to get me to move in with you?"

"Well, the offer is certainly still open," Giles said, smiling. "However, you've made your own opinions on that rather clear, and I intend to respect your ability to provide for yourself until such a time as you prove to me that you're not capable of doing so responsibly."

"Kinda sticking me with making sure I'm responsible, huh?" Faith said, grinning.

"Quite." Replacing his glasses, Giles studied her, then stated, "You've managed to bring yourself across country on your own - a feat I can assure you that few young people your apparent age might accomplish. You're providing for yourself, your clothing, and your meals with only the assistance of a small Council stipend. Even though I have reservations about the dangers of the methods involved, again, it is something that few teenagers can accomplish by _any_ means." Pausing, he thought for a moment, then added, "By most measures, you are _conducting_ yourself as an adult. I see few reasons not to treat your choices with the respect due to that."

"Wow." Faith stared at him. "That sounded almost like a compliment, huh?"

"It was." Giles nodded.

"Ok, so... " Faith stuck her hands back into her rear pockets and paced a bit more. "This ward thing... is this some Council arranged deal?"

"Ah." For a moment, a brief flash of anger and annoyance crossed Giles expression. "No. I'm afraid that when I proposed this, Travers rather took your view that it was an unneeded procedure. The Council's view being that given the general life expectancy of a Slayer, further education was a waste of time and that as an interim Watcher, I didn't require legal guardianship." Giles resisted the temptation to hold his breath or cross his fingers. His best card was playing upon Faith's distaste for the Council and authority in general, and gambling that it might incline her to do the opposite from spite. If it failed, he had no other options that were truly palatable to him. "This is purely something that I've looked into and arranged upon my own recognizance and through my own personal contacts."

Faith went quiet for a period, her gaze slightly distant. Giles let her think for a bit, before adding, "I fear that had Buffy not already been enrolled in the California high school system, and had she not had a parent insistent upon her getting an education, Travers would possibly have taken a harsher stance upon her efforts to lead a rather more normal teenage life."

Nodding abstractedly, Faith continued thinking for a bit longer. Finally, she glanced up at him, "This ward thing. What all does it do?"

"Well, effectively it would give me some input into decisions affecting you even _after_ you receive a permanent Watcher. Additionally, it gives me certain rights to demand visitation and input on your treatment in the event that you're hospitalized from Slayer related injuries," Giles stated. Pausing thoughtfully, he added, "At a later point, if you wish, we could look into the requirements for having you recognized as an emancipated teenager, providing you with further input into your own rights and decisions."

"Huh." Faith gave him a shrewd look. "Own recognizance, huh? That means doing it all on your own. You gonna get into trouble for this?"

"Possibly," Giles admitted. "I'll deal with that as needed if the situation should arise."

"Heh." Faith grinned, "Wicked, wicked man." She shook her head, "Bet you were somethin' in your bad old days." Giles returned the grin, not denying it.

"Ok," Faith went on after a moment. "So, whatcha need to set up the guardian and ward things and get this started?"

"Hmm." Giles considered. "For the moment, your last name so that I can get my solicitor to start upon the papers required, once we both sign them."

"Council still ain't got you my records, huh?" Faith shook her head. "Ok," she held up a hand forestalling Giles' comments, "Let me think on this, huh? This is kind of a big thing here." She gave him a brutally frank look, "No offense, Giles, but I'm not real sure I trust you enough for this yet."

Giles winced, but kept his voice and expression even. "I quite understand. However, I _did_ wish to make the opportunity available to you."

"Right." Faith nodded. "Tell you what: I'm gonna go hit the can and grab a snack. I'll let you know once I think this through." Giving him rather hesitant looking smile, she turned and headed out through the door into the library, leaving him there.

After a few moments, she stuck her head back around the doorway. "Oh. It's Lehane," she said. "Least that's what was on my birth certificate when I saw it last. Not the name of that loser they've probably got listed as my old man." Giving him a considering look, she added, "At least it cured my boredom." Flashing him a grin, she pulled her head back out, disappearing through the doorway again.

After a moment, Giles chuckled, shaking his head. Definitely a _much_ different individual than his other Slayer. Still chuckling, he searched for and retrieved the appropriate forms and papers from the clutter and began filling in that bit of data.

***********************************


	4. Chapter 3: Magical Mystery Tours

**Chapter 3: Magical Mystery Tours -**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sunnydale High School, afternoon.**_

While finishing up in the restroom, the bell rang announcing the end of a period of classes. Running a brush through her hair, Faith reflected that that would make it easier for her to get back to the library without drawing attention - she could blend into the crowds of students milling about and flowing through the halls as if she belonged there.

Maybe she'd even run into her buds along the way.

As a number of girls pushed into the women's room, chattering and laughing, Faith pushed out past them into the hallway. Rather than head straight back, she found herself drifting along aimlessly, deep in thought. Giles' offer had... unsettled her, she guessed would be the word. If he'd stated it was a Council idea, as Professor Dormer's adoption of Faith had been, she'd have a neat slot to peg it into. It being his own idea, undertaken with his own efforts and contacts - and supposedly without the Council's permission - confused her. She honestly couldn't see what was in it for him.

Well, other than a major pain in the ass from trying to act as a guardian to her and possibly from the Council if they got pissed off about it. She grinned, then sobered. It was the last bit that bugged her, honestly.

Giles seemed to be sticking his neck way out on the line for no good reason that she could see. It didn't occur to her that he might consider her welfare more than enough good reason: that wasn't in her world view. Faith was just barely beginning to accept that there were people like Xander and Cordelia who did things for reasons other than what they could get out of someone, and even there, she could see a benefit in it for them in their friendship. For her as well. The longer she survived on the Hellmouth, the longer they would.

The honest friendship growing between the three of them, as well as the lesser one between her, Willow, and Oz, was kind of a nice fringe benefit. She didn't doubt the friendship, she was just honest enough with herself to see all of the sides of it. She hoped, anyway...

The sound of low, intense voices from beyond a pair of doors off of the corridor she was strolling along caught her attention despite her being lost deep in thought. She paused for a moment, running the snatch of barely overheard conversation through her mind, then extending her senses out to hear better.

_"Harris is gonna get his ass kicked by Jack, guy, unless he chills out,"_ Faith heard. _"__You__ need to just lay low for a bit. Else it's gonna be real bad for you, get it?"_

Less than a half minute later, she pushed through the doorway into the near empty locker room just beyond. A short, dark haired and nervous looking boy was sitting on a bench near the lockers with another taller kid standing next to him, one foot propped on the bench and an arm resting on his upraised knee. Nearby, a rather sensual looking blonde haired girl stood with her arms crossed and a bored expression on her face. All three looked up and over as she pushed her way in, the smaller kid with a suddenly frightened expression, the other two with narrowing eyes.

"Problem?" Faith asked, her trademark smirk firmly in place. While she addressed it to all three, it was the smaller boy that she focused on.

"N-no, no problem," he said, glancing away, then back to her. "Really."

"Really," Faith drawled, disbelief stamped in every syllable of the word.

"Really," the taller kid said. He straightened up, bringing his foot off the bench and standing relaxed and casual while he and the girl looked her over. "We were just giving Jonathan here a bit of friendly advice."

"Uh huh. Sounded like," Faith said. She returned the looking over, with interest, moving up to stand in his personal space, looking up at him. Tall, pretty good looking, a shock of dark blonde hair with dark blue eyes. Just the kind of guy Faith would normally find interesting. Except...

Except there was something _off_ about him that set her teeth on edge. No - set her _slayer_ sense on edge, just barely and at the very edges of her senses. Not like a vamp, not like a demon, but... _off_ nevertheless. So instead of her usual sultry swagger, she found herself going almost bonelessly relaxed, ready and still inside, and radiating _'predator, do __not__ fuck with'_ from every line of her being.

"'Cause it sounded almost like a threat to me, from out there," she finished, the corner of her mouth curling up in a lazy half grin. The tall guy took an almost involuntary step back, as did the blonde girl, the guy's eyes widening slightly. Faith cocked her head to one side just a bit. "And threats with names like 'Harris' around them kinda get my attention, y'know? _Bad_ idea."

"No, really," the short kid - Jonathan - stood up, putting his hand out. "Tor _wasn't_ making threats, seriously."

"Tor, huh," Faith's eyes flicked to Jonathan, then back again. She stepped back easily, looking at Jonathan. "So, why don't you explain it to me, then?"

"You a friend of Harris'?" The blonde girl asked, curiously.

"Might say that," Faith nodded, her attention flickered over to the other girl, then back to Jonathan.

"Hey," Tor spread his hands, easily. "Jack was leaning on Jonno here this morning when your buddy Harris stepped into it. We were just pointing out that it'd be best if Jon here lays low until Jack blows off coming to classes again in a week or so."

"Asked him, not you," Faith said, mildly. She continued watching Jonathan while keeping track of the other two from her peripheral vision.

"It's the truth," Jonathan admitted, nodding. "Tor and Heidi weren't leaning on me." He glanced at Tor, showing a flicker of defiance, "Not like they would have _stopped_ Jack from pounding on me this morning."

"No percentage in it," Tor said, easily. "We _did_ step in and stop Jack from getting _too_ carried away after Harris decked Parker, though."

"Right," Faith said, turning her attention back to Tor. "This Jack, he a buddy of yours?"

The blonde girl, Heidi, gave a derisive bark of laughter. Tor snickered, giving a laugh of his own that had a bit too much cackle to it for Faith's tastes, shaking his head. "We hang sometimes. But we ain't low enough to consider Jack O'Toole a _friend_ or nothing."

"Cool," Faith said, nodding agreeably. "Then you won't mind passing on to this Jack character that if anything happens to Harris or _any_ of his friends," she jerked her head towards Jonathan, "I'll be kinda unhappy. And he _really_ won't like me when I'm unhappy."

"Hah." Tor said, a lazy grin spreading across his face. "No, won't mind a'tall. But it might be more amusing to not and see what happens."

Faith smirked again, her eyes narrowing. She took a short step, putting one foot up on the bench where Jonathan had been sitting. Her right fist blurred out suddenly and dented an eight inch deep crater in the steel door of the locker next to her.

"That'd get kinda ugly," Faith remarked. Tor and Heidi's eyes widened slightly, and then they both grinned.

"Still not seeing a downside to Jack getting dented," Heidi said.

"But we'll pass on the message, kinda quiet like," Tor finished. Cocking his head, he asked, "You realize Jack's just stupid enough to make an issue of it, right?"

"Didn't before. Now that I do," Faith remarked, "I can't say I care." She gathered the Jonathan kid up with her eyes and told him, "C'mon, guy - I'll walk you to your next class." Giving her a wide eyed and slightly boggled look, Jonathan followed her out of the locker room, Tor and Heidi's soft laughter following them out.

Sticking her hands in her back pockets, Faith motioned with her head for the Jonathan kid to led the way to wherever his next class was. She was quiet for a part of the way, mentally kicking herself a bit for possibly misreading the situation and getting involved. Still... hearing Harris' name had gotten her attention, and _nobody_ leaned on her buds and got by with it. And if Xander'd seen reason to stick up for this kid, it was good enough for her to cause her to back his play, even if it was after the fact.

"Thanks," the kid said. "For sticking up for me back there." He looked up at her kind of shyly. "Even if it wasn't really what you thought it was."

"Yeah, well," Faith shrugged. "Jonathan, right?"

"L-levinson. Jonathan Levinson," he said, nodding.

"No probs, Jon," Faith said, giving him a slight grin. "Gotta admit, I more stepped in from hearing Xander mentioned than anything else." Giving him a curious look, she asked, "So, you and the X-man friends, or what?"

"No, not really. I mean," Jonathan shrugged, "We've known each other most of our lives, but... we kind of always had different groups of friends." He gave her a bit of a hesitant look, swallowed heavily, then asked, "You? I mean... I don't think I've seen you hanging around with them before."

"I'm, uh, kinda new," Faith said, shrugging. Giving him a curious look, she asked, casually, "So, Xan really deck some guy to stop them from leaning on you?"

"Oh yeah!" Jonathan nodded enthusiastically. "It was _so_ cool - laid Parker out _cold_, almost."

Faith grinned. She could just about see that. "Bet the bad guys didn't think it was so cool."

"Well, no, not really," Jonathan admitted. "Jack slammed him into a locker and then punched him. Then Tor chilled things out before it got ugly."

"Din't know this Tor guy was a friend of Xan's," Faith remarked.

"Me either," Jonathan said. "But there was something between them - Tor was the guy Xander asked what was going on when he stepped in, like they knew each other." He stopped near a classroom door, "Well, this is where I get off, I guess."

"Cool." Faith said.

"Hey, thanks again," Jonathan said. "Uh, not many people bother sticking up for guys like me."

"Yeah, well," Faith moved her shoulders, kind of uncomfortable with the open admiration the kid was showing her. Smirking, she said, "If it gets 'em slammed into lockers and punched, I can kinda see why, huh?"

"Uh, right," Jonathan gave her a deer in the headlights look, ducking his head. "Uh, I'm gonna be late. I better go in."

"Cool. You do that," Faith said. "Err, don't worry about this Jack character. Just kinda stay outta his way til it gets worked out, huh?" Nodding to him once more, she spun on her heel and headed off as he opened the door to go into his class.

**................................................**

Funny, after wandering the halls kind of half watching for them, Faith almost ran into Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia on her way back to the library. Stepping out through a side door into the main hallway, she found herself walking into Xander's chest and stumbled putting on the breaks.

"Whoa," Xander said. He stumbled back slightly, catching her by the shoulders before they both went over. A brief flash of surprise and concern went across his face, replaced almost immediately by his usual half grin. "No running in the halls, Missy. You could hurt someone."

"Right," Faith said, stepping back and reach up to push her hair back from her face. She grinned, "Good thing I had a big strong guy to catch me, huh?"

"Oh, hurl," Cordelia said, giving an Olympic class eye roll. "Stealing lines from old movies now as well as watching them?"

"Bite me, Princess," Faith said, smirking. Surveying the rest of the group, she added, "Figured you guys'd be in class?"

"Free period," Oz stated. "Ninety minutes of unscheduled non-school activity." He checked an imaginary watch, "Seventy-three minutes."

"Well, except for the whole 'have to stay at school' part," Willow put in. Smiling, she cocked her head, giving Faith a curious look. "Didn't expect to see you up here?"

"Got bored but couldn't sleep," Faith said. "Figured I'd come hang with G and the books and that'd do the trick." She made a sudden decision to keep her little conversation with Jonathan and Tor under her hat for now, until she could get a chance to talk to Xander alone at some point.

"Better than Sominex," Xander remarked. "Zero to sleep in three-point-two seconds. With double the nightmares, depending on the books."

"Hush, you," Willow gave Xander a stern look that was slightly ruined by her trying to hold in laughter. "Giles isn't boring. Well... not that much, anyway." Xander smirked. Looked like they'd made up from their earlier disagreements, Faith noted. At least until the next Willow implosion...

"Occurs we never gave you the tour," Oz said.

"Not so much as you'd notice, no," Faith admitted. "Got a little bus with a loudspeaker for this? Or it a walking tour?"

"Our little bus is in the shop," Cordelia said. "And I _so_ can't believe I made a short bus joke about a group I'm with, jeeze."

"Yes! We've finally brought the Queen down to our level," Xander said, laughing. "She's one of us now!" Making a face, Cordelia punched him in the arm before hooking it with her own.

"Watch out guy, she'll hurt yas," Faith said. "But then, _you_ seem to enjoy that." She grinned as Xander spluttered, shaking his head.

Faith fell in step next to Willow and Oz as the group headed down the hallway. As they wandered through the school, Xander put on a corny tour bus guide accent and started pointing out places of interest, with Willow adding her own commentaries at various points.

"Over here we have the Auditorium where Marc the Magician harvested the talent show for organs," Xander pointed. "Watch yer step, ladies and germs - it may still be slippery."

"Oh- oh and _that's_ the cafeteria down there where we were all attacked by snakes," Willow pointed down another hallway. Faith raised her eyebrows, nodding.

Xander pointed in the other direction down a different corridor, "And over that way's the spot where Angel tried to kill Willow."

"And down those stairs is the boiler room where Marcie the inviso girl tried to kill me," Cordelia pointed.

"Inviso girl?" Faith stopped, giving her a curious look.

"Oh yeah - something about turning invisible because everyone ignored her," Cordelia explained, shrugging. "I swear - _some_ people will do _anything_ to get attention."

Faith snickered, rolling her eyes slightly. Pure Cordy. Putting his arm around Cordelia's shoulders, Xander pulled her close, saying, "That's my girl: new and improved with fifty percent more self absorption."

"Ooh, you know what I mean," Cordelia scowled, swatting him on the chest.

Shaking her head, Willow pointed, "Oh, and down this way is the lounge where Spike and his gang nearly massacred us all on Parent-Teacher night." Pointing to the stairwell along the way, she added, "A-a-and up those stairs is where I was almost sucked into a muddy grave." They went past those, Faith giving them a curious looking over.

"That way's the pool where I thought Xander turned into a Fish monster," Cordelia pointed at a set of double doors leading towards the Swim Team locker rooms.

Back in the main hallway, they stopped, looking around. Nudging Oz with an elbow, Faith asked, "No nifty school horror stories for the collection?"

"Nope. Almost nifty free," Oz said. "Most of mine happened outside school."

"And _this_ is the scariest place of all," Willow said, solemnly. Faith's eyebrows lifted and she gave Willow an inquiring look. "It's where Snyder usually corners us to draft us into things like Halloween escorting a-and Parent's Night preparations."

"Yup." Xander nodded. "They say young people don't learn anything in high school nowadays, but, uh, I've learned to be afraid. _Very_ afraid."

Laughing, Faith shook her head. "Ok, you guys are a hoot," she said. "If I'd had friends like you in high school, well, I... probably still would've dropped out. But I _might've_ been sad about it, you know?" Willow and the others exchanged grins and understanding looks.

"Not if you went to _this_ school, you wouldn't," Cordelia remarked. "You'd be happy you got out alive."

Laughing, Faith shook her head. Spying a drinking fountain under the obligatory 'Campus Rape' poster, she pointed, "Water. Be right back," and went over to it.

Coming out of the doors leading to cafeteria, a dark haired and fairly nice looking guy almost bumped into her, causing her to jump back slightly. She straightened, pushing her hair back and narrowing her eyes.

"Oops, sorry," the guy apologized. Smiling, he added, "Klutz day - I wasn't watching where I was going."

"S'all right," Faith said. She grinned, cocking her head slightly, "You look kinda familiar. I know you from somewhere?"

"Uh," he looked her over curiously, and a bit appreciatively. "The Bronze. You're friends with Cordelia and them, right?"

"Right," Faith said. She stuck out her hand, "I'm Faith."

Accepting it, he grinned back at her. "I'm Scott. Nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise, guy," Faith said. "Even if it did take a head on collision."

"Hey! I apologized already," Scott put up his hand, laughing. "Hey, look - I'm meeting some friends out in the Quad for free period. Want to go with? I'll treat you to a soda as damage compensation."

"Naw," Faith said, a bit regretfully. "Got my buds over there and we were on our way to the library."

"Ah," Scott glanced over at Cordelia and the gang, giving them a nod and a smile. "It's cool. Rain check, maybe?"

"Maybe see you at the Bronze later tonight?" Faith suggested.

"Sure, sounds good," Scott stated. Smiling at her, he headed off and out through the side doorway as Faith headed back to the group.

"I haven't seen Scott laugh like that before," Willow remarked as Faith came up. "Hey, maybe you and Scott could hit it off."

"Maybe," Faith allowed. "He's kind of a cutie. Is he seeing anybody?"

Xander looked blank, and Cordelia shrugged. "Not that I know of. Not lately." Giving Faith an appraising look, she cocked her head slightly, "Thinking about giving the dating thing a try?"

"Hey, ya never know," Faith winked at her. "Girl's gotta try new things every _once_ in awhile." Hooking her arm through Xander's free one, she smirked, "Since Tiger here's already taken, leaves me playing the field."

"Just so you remember that," Cordelia said, winking back. "_This_ field is all claimed."

"Hey!" Xander said, then looked suddenly introspective, "And I have _no_ idea why I'm objecting here, really. It just felt appropriate." Grinning, he said, "Library? Shall we all go annoy the tweed?"

**................................................**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sunnydale High School, late afternoon.**_

"Hey Jonno," Lance said as he walked up to his friend's locker. "How goes?"

"Pretty good, I guess," Jonathan grinned, looking up from putting his books away. "As long as Jack doesn't see me, anyway." Lance gave his friend a sympathetic look.

"Jon!" Freddy Iverson came up to the pair, leaning against Jonathan's locker door. "Hey, who was the total babe that walked you to Chem Lab earlier?"

"Uh, girl named Faith," Jonathan shrugged. "Friend of Xander's, I think."

"Really?" Lance looked at Jonathan, waggling his eyebrows. "_Babe_, huh?" He looked over at Freddy, who made an exaggerated hourglass shape with his hands, leering.

"Yup. Hot hot _hot_," Freddy said. "Talking triple alarm, man." Jonathan scowled, looking embarrassed as he finished packing his books away and grabbed what he needed for his last class. Freddy smirked at him, saying, "Guess you'll be dropping out now that you're getting _lucky_ on your own, huh, Jon?"

Shaking his head, Jonathan closed his locker a bit harder than necessary. "Oh, right. Like a girl like that's going to even remember me tomorrow." He rolled his eyes, "Naw. She was just being nice."

"I'll say," Freddy laughed, punching him in the shoulder. "_Real_ nice."

"Jeeze. Grow up," Jonathan said, looking pained. "No. I'm, uh, still in. Did all this work already, right?"

"Right." Lance stated, nodding enthusiastically. "So, tonight?"

Jonathan shook his head. "Tomorrow night, if it's finished and debugged by then. Still need some work on the code - I have Shane coming over to help me tweak it."

"Shane?" Freddy frowned at him. "Man, we don't need any more people involved, do we?"

"Relax," Jonathan said, smiling. "He thinks it's for a game AI I'm trying to develop. And I really _need_ another programmer to help on this part."

"Oh, ok. Uh.... did you manage to get the magic worked in too?" Lance gave him a half hopeful, half impressed look. "We _need_ the realism, you know."

The three of them paused as Aura and Tamara went past talking, watching them appreciatively until they were out of sight. After the girls were gone, the three males picked up their conversation again.

"I know, I know." Jonathan nodded, looking pained. "Already done. Talked Michael into helping me on that part."

"Czajak?" Freddy looked puzzled for a minute, then said, "But doesn't he already have a girlfriend?"

Rolling his eyes again, Jonathan said, "Game project, right?" Jeeze. He was starting to think he _really_ needed some new friends...

"Oh, right." Freddy shrugged. "So, where. Your place?"

"Uh, no. My laptop doesn't have the processing power. Neither does my desktop," Jonathan said. "We're going to have to sneak in up here and get into the computer lab so we can use the school's mainframe."

"Cool." Freddy and Lance both grinned. "Man," Lance said, "This is gonna be better than CineMax!"

***************************************


	5. Chapter 4: Training Wheels

**Chapter 4: Training Wheels -**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; E. Chestnut St., Sunnydale, late afternoon/early evening.**_

Bouncing on her toes, Faith looked around the new training area like a kid at Christmas. "Man," she looked over at Willow and Oz, grinning. "I can't believe you guys did all this while we were gone. You didn't have to give up your last week of vacation on it."

Beaming, Willow put on an 'aw shucks' expression. "Well, we kinda did. We wanted to get things set so we could start, and so Oz's band could use it for practice when we're not."

"We're trying to lose that whole 'we suck' thing we have going," Oz supplied.

"Besides, we managed to get in some dating time too around the whole wolf sitting thing," Willow added, "So it wasn't like we spent the whole week."

"Cool," Faith said. "You guys are great."

"Devon and the guys helped," Oz put in.

Acknowledging that with a grin, Faith headed over to a weight bench. She gave it a critical look, then after a glance at the side of the weight box, added several more weights on each end before dropping onto the bench. Taking several deep breaths, she put her hands on the bar, lifting it and doing several reps before setting the bar back in its cradle. "Way cool. And a weight machine, too," she said, sitting up again.

"Yes," Giles said, smiling. "As long as we had the funding available, I decided we should have all of the amenities for use."

"Cool," Faith said again. "Almost makes me regret the things I said about the Council."

Wandering over to the bench, Cordelia gave the weight bar a curious look. Her eyes widened slightly. "Wow," she remarked, looking at Faith. "How much do you _have_ on this thing, anyway?"

"Uh... " Faith shrugged. "Most it'll hold? Olympic bar, and the box says 1500 pounds max."

"Jeeze," Cordelia backed away, shaking her head. "I _knew_ Buffy was strong, but I didn't know _how_ strong. You can really work out with all that?"

"Well, yeah, pretty much." Faith bobbed her head, looking unconcerned.

"Huh. Just out of curiosity," Xander said, wandering over to stand next to Cordelia, "How much _can_ you lift?"

"Dunno?" Faith shrugged. "Never found weights that could max out that high since I got called." Twisting on the bench, she gave the bar a puzzled look. "Bench presses, that's just about max - enough to burn real good. Clean and jerk a bit less, and dead lifting, no idea. No weights that go that high. Curls," she frowned, thinking, "Maybe half that, max, but less is easier."

"Okayyy, I just fell deeply into the pit of inadequacy," Xander said, backing away. "Remind me to never _ever_ arm wrestle you." He grinned self deprecatingly, but his eyes had a whole new appreciation when he looked at her.

"S'ok, Xan," Faith told him. "You do the heavy lifting in morale boosts. I just handle the light work."

Leaning against the counter out of the way, Giles merely watched, smiling, as Faith interacted with her friends and explored the training room. Coming to a stack of boxes near the office wall, Faith squatted on her heels to examine them.

"What's all this?" She glanced over at the others, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh - deliveries," Willow said. "I forgot to mention: I ordered some more stuff, you know, like from the Scooby Fund for us." Glancing down, she looked back up again a bit uncertainly, "Hope that's ok?"

"Well, sure," Faith said, grinning. "What it's for, huh?" Selecting a box and pulling it away from the wall, she started opening it. After a few minutes she reached in past the packing peanuts and pulled out a parallel arm compound crossbow still wrapped in plastic and bubble wrap. Tearing the wrap off, she looked up at Willow and grinned. "Ok, think I just found my new favorite toy."

"Slayers and weapons," Cordelia said, rolling her eyes. Still, she wasn't exactly at the rear of the group when the others crowded in to drag boxes over near the side tables to start opening and unpacking them.

"Ok," Willow said, once they had everything opened up and spread out along the tables. "More crossbows, several bundles of wooden bolts, several more of those air rifle bows, wooden arrows, a few more pistol crossbows and bolts, more bottled Holy Water, and some more paintball guns. You know, for the holy water paintballs." She cocked her head, examining the table, "Oh! And a couple-three of these new motorized super soakers. They're supposed to spray water jets like fifty _feet_ or more," she finished up, beaming.

"Way cool, Red," Faith said, surveying the table. Xander nodded, agreeing. He picked up a compact looking compound crossbow, examining it curiously. Oz busied himself picking up the bubble wrap and other debris and stuffing it back into cartons while the rest of the group looked over the toys.

"Wow," Cordelia said, holding a pistol crossbow. "Lots of stuff. Anything left in the fund?" When Faith and Xander looked at her, she shrugged, "Just asking."

"Oh yeah," Willow said. "I didn't want to spend _all_ of it, you know. Just getting what we needed to round things out?"

"Cool," Cordelia grinned at her. "Done good, Will." Willow flushed a bit, giving her a slightly nervous grin and a pleased look back.

"Think I found mine," Oz remarked, holding a compound bow. He sorted through the table until he located an arm guard, then noticed everyone looking at him. "Hey. Archery at camp in the summers."

"We do still need to block off the windows upstairs so we can practice," Willow said. "With, like, plywood or something so we can set up targets."

"And use the full length of the floor," Oz nodded.

"I can do that," Xander said, placing his crossbow back with the others. Stepping back from the table, he stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around at the group. "Had lots of practice pounding nails and using a drill over the summers," he gave them a half grin.

Stepping over to join them, Giles pulled his glasses down slightly to look at the table over the tops. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he pursed his lips slightly. "While I'm still a bit uneasy with all of this newer technology," he said, "It certainly does seem to have been effective in your hands, so far." Reaching out to clasp Willow's shoulder, he gave her a small smile. "Well done, Willow. Your efforts are to be commended." Glancing over at the cheerleader, he added, "A-and Cordelia's, of course, for funding the earlier acquisitions."

Willow grinned up at him, as did Cordelia after giving him a startled and surprised look. The cheerleader nodded, hiding her pleased expression. "Ok, so, when do we get to the actual training and stuff?" Cordelia asked.

Faith shrugged. "Right now, I guess, if you guys are up for it." Glancing around the room, she said, "Give me a hand unrolling the mats and spreading them out, and we're good to go."

"I'll give Oz a hand hauling all these boxes out to the dumpster," Xander suggested. "Get 'em out of our way."

"Oh sure, take the easy job," Cordelia said. Xander quirked a half grin at her, gathering up several packing boxes.

A short time later, everyone gathered in the main area in sweats, standing around the edges of the mats. Cordelia bound her hair back in a pony tail to keep it out of her eyes while Faith bounced gently on her toes a couple of times, facing Giles.

Giving Giles a slight bow, Faith cocked an eyebrow at him. "Ok, so, what do you want to start with, Sensei?"

"Ah," Giles surveyed the small group, pushing his glasses up with an index finger. He regarded Faith with a small grin. "I had rather thought that I would leave that up to you," he said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the counter.

"Ah... huh?" Faith stared at him.

"It occurs to me that determining how to best impart your training to the others will also help to solidify your own grasp of the techniques and skills involved," Giles told her. He inclined his head slightly, "I will of course stand ready to assist in areas outside your familiarity."

"Right," Faith scowled at him. "Giles, I'm no trainer," she said, spreading her hands out. "C'mon."

"There is an ancient saying," Giles remarked, his eyes twinkling, "That one only _truly_ learns a thing once one has taught it to others." Xander started to snicker, only to quickly hide it in a coughing fit when Faith shot him a murderous look.

Opening her mouth and closing it again, Faith gave Giles a suspicious look. "This is revenge for earlier today, isn't it."

"Nonsense." Giles managed an affronted look. "I wouldn't dream of lowering myself in such a petty fashion." He gestured to the mats, folding his arms again after, "Do carry on."

"Right." Faith's scowl deepened. "You're not gonna reconsider, huh." Giles shook his head, smiling. Turning her back on him, Faith faced the mats, her brow furrowed slightly in concentration.

After several minutes, Cordelia folded her arms, looking bored. "So, are we going to get on with this any time soon, or what?"

Turning her scowl on her friend, Faith said, "Hush. I'm thinking."

"Wake me when you're done. I know you're out of practice," Cordelia snarked, sitting down cross legged on the floor. Faith's glance at her was murderous. It was also completely ineffective.

After several more minutes, Faith turned back to Giles. Pushing her hair back, she cocked her head, looking up at him. "Remember awhile back when we were going over the various styles I know?" Giles pursed his lips, then nodded, indicating that he did. "'K, so... I'm thinking mostly redirection and down and dirty stuff, not brute force, right?"

"Hmm." Thinking for a moment, Giles gave her a nod. "Quite. Compensating for differences in strength, rather?" Faith nodded, and he said, "Excellent idea."

"'K. So I'm thinking," Faith said, frowning, "Aiki-jitsu, Ju-jitsu, and Krav Maga for the down and dirty. Maybe Escrima for the weapon stuff." Her musings drew blank looks from everyone except for Giles and Xander.

Going over to the training weapon racks along the wall, Faith examined the various implements there, still frowning. Stopping at a section of bokken of various lengths, she selected a pair of differing lengths as the group trailed along watching her. "Good deal. You got some with no guards." Tossing one of them to Xander, she glanced at him, "You take wood and metal shop, you said, right?"

Catching the length of hardwood a bit awkwardly, he gave her a slightly confused look. "Well, yeah. They're the only two classes I make B's and A's in."

"Ok," Faith nodded, twirling the other in one hand, absently. "Take a look at the tip on that, and tell me what you think. Look at it with an eye towards vamp stabbing."

"Ah." Comprehension dawned on him as Faith's words sank in. He gave the thirty-three inch piece of slightly curved hardwood a thorough inspection. "Well... it's already wedge shaped in the point. Take a belt grinder and a sander and bring the back edge of the tip down at a slight angle, and it'll get you a nasty point, especially if you sharpen the wedge here." Looking up, he said, "Should go into a vamp pretty well."

"'K," Faith held her hand up, and he tossed it back. Catching it out of the air, she set the pair back in the rack. "All right," Faith nodded, moving away from the weapon racks. Lowering herself down, she dropped into a cross legged sitting position in the center of the mat, gesturing for everyone else to gather around near her. "This is what we're gonna do."

Taking a deep breath, she pushed her hair back again, giving them a serious look. "Not gonna give you guys a bunch of dojo crap like in the karate movies," she said. "You guys've already been doing this for awhile. Hell, you've been doing this longer than _I_ have, except for street fighting." Faith grinned, "You don't need a lot of wax on, wax off crap."

"All right," Willow said slowly, "So, what do you have in mind?"

"Basically, goin' directly to stay alive and get the job done stuff, and then building on that." Faith told her. "You guys pretty much know the score, and what we're dealing with. I'm gonna show you how to finish a fight and win. Can complicate later once you get the basics."

Standing up, she glanced over to where Giles was leaning and hiding a smile. The corners of her lips quirked up reluctantly, seeing that. "So, what, Giles - a vamp is like... five times as strong as a normal human? And several times faster?"

"Well," Giles looked thoughtful for a moment. "We've estimated three to five times normal human strength, yes. And at least two or more times as fast as a regular human." He frowned slightly, "Keeping in mind that vampires aren't generally amenable to letting us test and measure these things."

"Right, with old or master vamps being even faster and stronger," Faith said, nodding. "Ok," she turned to the others. "Lesson the one: you can't match strength and speed with a vamp. It won't happen." Looking them over, she gave Cordelia a malevolent smile, then moved on until she settled on Harris. Cocking her head, she said, "Xan."

Giving her an almost comically wide eyed look back, he hunched a bit as Faith waved everyone else off of the mats. "Ok, all out attack like a vamp might do - just charge in and haymaker me."

Shaking his head, Xander opened his mouth to object, then shut it again, shrugging. Dropping into something that resembled a stance, he lunged at her, cocking back his fist. Faith sidestepped, bringing her arm up to sweep his punch aside, then kicked at the back of his knee gently as he went past her. She brought one arm up under his shoulder from behind as he stumbled past, his knee buckling, and pulled him in against her chest with the other. "Ok, struggle and break loose," she suggested.

Putting his body weight and everything he had into it, Xander started bucking and wriggling to get free, even stomping back at her legs and knees. Faith held him effortlessly for a moment, moving her legs away from his kicks and stamps. Bringing her head down, she bit gently into the side of his neck at the junction of neck and shoulder, then she shoved him away.

"Ok, what just happened?" Faith asked him, raising her eyebrows. Xander glared at her, rubbing the side of his neck with one hand.

"Besides the fact that you just wrapped me up and drained me?"

Faith smirked at him, looking unapologetic, "Yeah, besides that."

"Huh." Xander scowled, then his face cleared and took on a thoughtful expression. "Ok. You swept my arm aside, and turned me away from the direction I was moving in?" Faith nodded and he went on, "Then you kicked my leg out and locked me up in some sort of aikido hold and bit me."

"Right." Faith grinned at him, winking, then turned back to the rest of the group. "Lesson the one: you _can't_ match strength and speed with a vamp. It _won't_ happen. Gotta see the line of attack, move aside, and redirect it. Then do whatever it takes - lock an elbow, throw him using his own weight and speed, or lock joints and break kneecaps." Folding her arms, she added, "Then stake him, _fast_. He's stronger than you, so he can torque out of a hold or joint lock you can't even break."

Motioning to Xander, Faith continued, "Xan's got a head and a half on me, and maybe sixty pounds, but he couldn't twist out of that no matter what. Even a _small_ vamp's a lot stronger than you are." Everyone nodded - this wasn't information that was new to them. "I know you know this, but you gotta know it down where you _live_, not just in your head. What I'm thinking is I'm going to show you how to do that, redirect, lock, damage, and then finish fast. Barehanded, _and_ with sticks. And we'll mix it up with weapons for a change of pace." Frowning slightly, she said, "Then we'll work on doing it in teams."

Oz cocked his head, looking at her. "You don't fight like that."

"Don't have to," Faith stated, nodding agreement. "I'm faster and stronger than most vamps. I can use Muay Thai and other stuff on 'em." She grinned, adding, "But I did _before_ I got Called. Remember, I was doing this for eight months or so when I was still normal, and my Watcher kept up the training even _after_ I got Called and moved onto other tricks."

Oz nodded. After that, following a short break for water and and stretching out, Faith got everyone onto the mats and started demonstrating redirects and various holds and locks. Once she was sure they had the basic form of a trick, she switched off 'playing vamp' and doing slow attacks while they tried duplicating blocks and counters in practice.

Demonstrating a block/joint lock combination, she watched as everyone worked at duplicating it. Cocking her head slightly, she examined Cordelia for a few minutes as the cheerleader took turns switching attacker/defender roles with the taller and heavier Xander.

"You're picking that up pretty quick, C," Faith noted. "Form'll take work, but you've got the basics."

Throwing her a bright smile, Cordelia nodded, blowing a few strands of hair off of her face. "I usually only have to see a routine a couple-three times before I can duplicate it. Always have." Giving Xander a slight glare, she added, "And I know you guys make fun of cheering, but cheer leading routines are _complex_, jeeze."

"Not me," Xander said, holding his hands up. "Not any more." He grinned at her, "Besides, who could make fun of the outfits and all they contain?" Cordelia stuck her tongue out at him, grinning.

"Ok," Faith nodded, stepping back. "Switch off partners and practice the moves I showed you for a bit while I watch. Alternate attacking/reacting." She thought for a second, adding, "After I think you got the basic moves here down enough, we'll break, then switch to sticks for a bit and I'll show you how to do it that way."

Picking up a towel, she went over to lean against the counter next to Giles as the other four went back to practicing.

Handing her a bottle of water, Giles glanced down at her. "Well done," he remarked. "I knew you could do it."

"Glad _you_ did," Faith scowled up at him. After a moment, the corner of her lips twitched up into a reluctant smile. "Ok, I'll give you that one." She took a swig of the cold water, turning her attention back to the class.

"Ah." Giles laughed softly. "Does that mean I can look forward to being forgiven at some point before the next ice age?"

"I'll think about it," Faith allowed.

"Excellent. I shall look forward to it, then," Giles smiled, removing his glasses to polish them. "What do you think of your students so far?"

"Huh." Faith studied the pairings. "Cordy's a natural. She'll be dangerous in a few months. Xan's kinda... he hesitates, but he seems to pick things up fast. Oz too, but slower. Will... " Faith shook her head. "Red's gonna need a lot of work."

"Quite." Giles nodded. "I believe that all of this is quite alien to Willow. She's used to less physical means of assisting."

"Yeah, well, she is getting it, though." Faith said. Cocking her head slightly, she glanced up at him. "Can't believe B never bothered to show them anything since they've been helping an' all."

"Ah. Well... " Giles replaced his glasses, hunching his shoulders and looking slightly uncomfortable. "I believe Buffy was never able to reconcile herself to her friends taking part in the physical aspect of slaying, despite their having been invaluable on occasion. I rather suspect she would have blocked them entirely from that part of the struggle if she could but only have figured out a way to do so."

"Yeah, well," Faith considered for a few moments, watching the practice. "They're gonna do it, doing it without training's suicide sooner or later. Guts and good intentions don't do it in a fight." Glancing back up at him with a slight smile, she said, "Kinda why I mentioned it to you."

"Yes, well, ah... " Giles stuck his hands in his pockets. "I rather fear a great deal of that can be laid at my feet," he said. "Once I realized that the others were going to participate regardless, I should have taken it upon myself to make certain they could do so effectively." He shrugged. "I can only say that the concept of bringing civilians into the struggle is rather alien to my training, much less training them to assist."

"Yeah, well," Faith nodded. "You got over it." After a moment, she added, "Thanks. For setting all this up, right?"

Giles smiled. "I suppose it would be more appropriate to thank the Council, rather."

"Council didn't make it happen though, you did." Faith grinned up at him. "And you gotta figger, they'd probably, err, look down at it if they knew we were training civvies an' all. So, I figure you made it happen."

"I suppose," Giles said, shrugging.

"Well, seen enough to do some correcting off of. I'm gonna head back out to the mats." Giving him another smile, Faith set her water bottle down on the counter and strolled back out to the practice group.

**...**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; The Bronze, night.**_

"Ugh." Cordelia dropped into a booth, slumping tiredly as Xander slid in next to her. "I am _so_ going to have bruises on my aches tomorrow," she complained, glaring at Faith.

Grinning, Faith shrugged at her. "Hey, you outta know nothing comes easy, being an athlete and all." Cordelia rolled her eyes as Willow giggled at that, then groaned theatrically.

"But but - at least the vamps are just trying to _kill_ us," Willow said. "That's actually comparatively kind of merciful, if you think about it."

"Awww," Faith shook her head. "But think of the side effects, Red. You'll be looking all trim, fit and way hot before you know it."

"Ummm. Willow hotness," Oz said, bumping her lightly with his shoulder. Willow pouted at him.

"I thought you _liked_ me all untrimmed," she said. "Err," she blushed, "Un_trim_, that is."

"I do." Oz stated. "But there's untrim. And there's trim. It's like a duality of Willow hotness."

"They actually speak English some times?" Faith raised her eyebrows at Xander and Cordelia.

"Rumor has it," Xander said. Cordelia nodded.

"Ah. Ok." Faith said, dubiously. "Long as you're sure. Hey - " she grinned at Cordelia, "_Way_ cool new ride you got there, C."

"Isn't it _just_?" Cordelia perked up at that. "Brand new Mercedes Vision XLR. Just _barely_ out on the market, even. Daddy must have pulled in all _kinds_ of favors to get one."

"Ugh. Car nice. Lights pretty," Xander stated. Laughing, Cordelia nudged him and he grinned back at her.

"Uh oh. The Xan's gone all cave man on us," Faith observed. "Better do something before he goes veggie."

As if on cue the current band, Future Pigeon, started into a new set. Waggling her eyebrows, Faith asked, "Mind if I drag the boytoy out on the floor to wake him up?"

"Oh, please," Cordelia said. "I'm too tired to object. Have at."

"Cool." Bouncing up, Faith leaned over and snagged Xander by the arm, starting to pull him to his feet.

"Auugh. Can't I just pass out _here_ in my pain and exhaustion?" Xander protested, but let himself be slowly dragged up to his feet, groaning all the way.

"No. You'll stiffen up," Faith said. "C'mon." Shaking his head, Xander trailed along behind her as she towed him out onto the dance floor.

After a waitress had visited the table and brought them back their drink orders, Oz looked at the floor, then lifted an eyebrow at Willow.

"Ohhh... " Willow groaned, then nodded enthusiastically. "Sure." she let Oz pull her up, then turned in the crook of his arm to look at Cordelia. "You gonna be ok here?"

"Sure," Cordelia said, grinning. "I'm just going to sit here sipping my mochachino while I stiffen up. Go have fun."

Aura and Tamara wandered in while Cordelia was working on her coffee. Spotting her, they made their way along the edges of the crowd, ignoring Harmony's table as they came over.

"Hey," Aura said. She flounced into a chair near Cordelia as Tamara pulled up one at the end of the table.

"Hey," Cordelia waved tiredly. "How goes?"

"Oh, fine," Aura cocked her head, giving Cordelia a critical looking over. "You, however, look exhausted." Tamara nodded agreement.

"That's funny. I feel like I look then. Fancy that." Cordelia said, laughing. "Been tr- uh, martial arts practicing."

"Martial arts? That's so cool," Tamara said. "In a kind of a butch way, of course. What kind?"

"Beat Cordelia-up-fu, I'm thinking," Cordelia told her, grinning. "I'll be ok, once my body catches up to it."

"Cool," Aura glanced out at the dance floor, frowning slightly. "I know he's no prize, but you let your boyfriend dance with other girls?"

"Huh?" Following her gaze out to where a laughing Faith was undulating sensuously around a goofily dancing Xander, Cordelia waved it off with a vague gesture. "That's no girl. That's just Faith."

"Sure looks like a girl," Tamara said, dubiously.

"She's a... " Cordelia frowned slightly, then said a mental 'hell with it'. "Best friend of ours, of sorts," she finished.

"Ah." Aura thought a minute, then nodded. "The new girl you mentioned, from over the summer. Right."

As the current set ended, Faith and Xander came back to the table while Oz and Willow headed over to join Devon in talking to the band. Xander slid in next to Cordelia as Faith dropped back into her seat, reaching for her drink.

"We've been invaded by Harmonettes," Xander stated, eying Aura and Tamara.

"_Cor_dettes, please," Aura said. "We're refugees." Cocking her head to stare at him, she added, "And the cool factor _here_ just went basement." A grin went along with the jibe, though, and she didn't seem to be making any movements to leave.

"That's ok, we'll bring it back up in spite of you," Faith said, smirking at her. Xander snickered, ignoring his girlfriend's pained look.

Raising an eyebrow, Aura gave Faith a long careful appraisal, finally nodding. "You'll do, I think."

Faith grinned, and Tamara gestured towards Xander. "_Him_, we'll tolerate," she said, ignoring Xander's mock injured 'hey!'.

"Why not? We do," Faith said. Giving Tamara a curious look, she added, "Wicked cool accent, girl."

"I'd say thanks, but I was born with it," the darker girl said, smiling. "It's from the Caribbean. Sint Maarten, in the Netherlands Antilles."

"If you say so," Faith said, nodding.

"Exchange student from last year," Cordelia explained as she leaned into Xander. She waved vaguely in the direction of her two friends, "Faith, Aura, Tamara. Now you're introduced."

"Oh?" Lifting an eyebrow, Faith said, "Thought exchange students were only for a semester or so?"

"Was," Tamara agreed. "But then Daddy decided to buy and re-open the oil field outside of town as an investment, and we moved here for the duration."

"Cool," Faith said.

Reaching out to nudge Faith with his toe, Xander jerked his head to one side, grinning at her. "Scott Hope at Five o'Clock," he remarked. "Incoming."

She grinned at him, nodding and leaning back in her seat. "Hey, everyone," Scott came to a stop near Faith's chair. Looking around the table, he gave everyone a nod before his attention came to rest on Faith. "Hey."

"Hey yourself," Faith said. Reaching out to push a chair away from the table, she added, "Park it and join us, guy."

"Uh, sure," he slid into the chair. "If no one else minds?"

"Nope. More the merrier," Cordelia said. "Hey, Scott." Everyone else either shrugged or grinned at him, indicating they didn't care. Coming through on her rounds, the waitress stopped at their table to take new drink orders before moving on.

"Hey." Glancing back at Harmony's table where she was sitting with a group of her acolytes and glaring in their direction, Scott raised his eyebrows. "So, this is the cool table now?"

"Hey, wherever the Queen holds court, is the happenin' spot," Faith said, gesturing in Cordy's direction. Cordelia inclined her head gracefully, then grinned.

"Good. Just checking," Scott said. "First week realignments are murder if you don't have a scorecard."

Tamara laughed, and Xander leaned forward, saying in a conspiratorial voice, "Probably better not to say 'murder' in the same breath as 'Sunnydale High', you know?" Her eyes widening slightly, Aura nodded seriously.

"Hah. Good point," Scott said, laughing. He sobered suddenly, "That's actually not funny, based on last year." Shaking his head, he turned back to Faith, "So, uh, would you like to dance?" He gestured toward the dance floor.

Looking toward the still empty stage where the band hadn't come back from break, Faith scowled. "To the DJ mix?" After a moment's consideration, she shrugged, grinning. "Why the hell not? Sure," she said, bouncing up.

"Cool," Scott stood from his chair.

"Hey," Faith said, looking at her friends, "Know you two guys are wiped, so... I can make my own way home later. Or I can hook a ride with Red and Oz when they go."

"Or I can give her a ride," Scott added. "I have my car."

Cordelia nodded, and Xander aimed a finger at Scott, giving him a mock stern glare. "Just don't keep her out too late, son." Xander smirked, getting a laughing half scowl from Faith.

"And _do_ try not to break him, Faith," Cordelia added, laughing. "You know _what_ happened to the _last_ three." Scott's eyebrows went up and he developed a faintly alarmed expression.

"Oh, _I'll_ be gentle," Faith said, taking Scott's arm. "C'mon, guy - I'll steer you around the curves nice and easy." Scott's ears reddened slightly, and Faith started hauling him towards the dance floor.

"Should we worry?" Aura asked, looking between a grinning Xander and Cordelia.

"Only about Scott," Cordelia said. "Lighting candles might be a good idea, too."


	6. Chapter 5: Storm Warnings

**Chapter 5: Storm Warnings -**

_**Tuesday September 8, 1998; Sewer and tunnel complexes under Sunydale, night.**_

The low vibrations of a train going by far overhead caused glassware to dance slightly on nearby shelves. Dacascos barely registered it, instead continuing to study the dark wine in his goblet. A tall, dark haired individual looking to be of mixed Filipino ancestry, he gave off an impression of quiet intensity even while sitting motionless.

The entry of another vampire into the large underground chamber did cause him to look up from his musings. Glancing over at the newcomer, he raised an eyebrow, taking in his lieutenant's approach.

"Ice," Dacascos nodded as the slender oriental vampire came over to him. "You have something of interest?"

"Rumor has it the Slayer's back," Ice said. The Japanese vampire frowned slightly, adding, "Someone spotted her entering Willy's late night."

"Interesting. The previous Slayer? Or the new one?"

"Ah. The new one," Ice said, shrugging slightly. "Sorry."

"No problem," Dacascos waved off the apology. "It _does_ pay to be precise on these things, though. Saves on confusion."

The Japanese vampire nodded, drawing up a seat nearby. Across the chamber, one of the other vampires in attendance stood suddenly, strolling over to them. Dacascos watched him approach with some amusement.

"Want me to take some people and go hunting?" The speaker was almost six and a half feet tall and burly, with a shaved head and a bushy Fu-manchu mustache. Tattoos covered what was visible of his arms and neck, running under his garb of body armor and black leather pants. A long, jagged scar ran down the left side of his face, giving him a ferocious look where it drew the corner of his mouth into a perpetual scowl.

After a moment's consideration, Dacascos shook his head. "No, Lohse. I don't believe that'll be advised at the moment."

The bald vampire, Lohse, gave off a derisive snort. "Getting kind of tired of having that Slayer bitch running around while we lounge around in this dank hole," he made a fist with his right hand, crumpling the beer can he'd been holding and sending foam dribbling over his fingers and arm. He pitched the can into a trash bin with a sudden movement of his arm. "Pretty damned sick of it, actually," he said, glaring from behind his shades.

"Actually," Dacascos said, mildly. "This is a pretty _nice_ hole." He gestured around the chamber. "Dry, heated, electricity," he motioned towards the computer table at one side where another vampire was busily working in front of a cluster of monitors. "Running water. Bottled blood," he gestured to the two refrigerators at one side. "Even live carry in." Dacascos smirked over to where the cooling corpses of several college age girls were sprawled. "Oh - which reminds me: Rhoden, please have some minions take the empties out and dump them in the river. They're cluttering."

"Certainly," the vampire named Rhoden remarked without looking up from his keyboard.

Dacascos leaned back in his seat, studying Lohse over his wine glass. Lohse made a derisive sound again, cracking his knuckles. "Thought we were supposed to be settling in here to take over the Hellmouth and this town, not sit around playing games."

"No, we came her to make money and accumulate influence," Dacascos said. It was getting to be an old argument between them. He inclined his head towards Rhoden and his computers, "Which we are _doing_ quite nicely, I might add." Ice smirked, studying the bigger vampire to watch his reaction.

"Yeah," Lohse acknowledged. "While the Slayer and her buddies run around picking off our distribution houses and denting our damned profits."

Dacascos shrugged, "Distribution houses we set up as decoys to be taken down and keep her happy and occupied." He sighed, "However, she has taken to hunting down our roving distributors and their guards. _That_ is annoying."

"Which is why we should kill her now," Lohse stated. Dacascos pointedly studied the bald vampire's scar for a long moment rather than responding immediately. If he'd had circulation, the bigger vampire would have flushed. As it were, he scowled instead.

"I usually don't mix into this," Ice said in a calm voice, "But Lohse here does have a bit of a point. Why aren't we killing her?"

"I intend to. Once I'm certain that we're established well enough to weather the influx of new demons and master vampires, as well as the increased attention from the Watcher's Council that a... suddenly slayerless Hellmouth will bring," Dacascos said. "Keeping her diverted works for now. She's providing a valuable service by eliminating the stupider vamps that aren't working with us."

Ice nodded, the explanation settling the matter for him, apparently. Lohse looked unconvinced. "So? We can kill off her little playmates and send her a message. They're making her more dangerous, anyway."

Dacascos sighed. Not the first time this line of argument had come up, either. "Yes. That worked so _well_ for Angelus, didn't it? I understand that those tactics are why he seems to be on permanent vacation courtesy of the _previous _slayer." Dacascos shook his head, "And this _Faith_ slayer seems to be of a different breed. I'm _not_ forgetting that threatening her associates is why we have a row of demonic mobster heads lining the front of Willy's place - and a distinct _lack_ of other competitors."

"Arrgh," Lohse threw up his hands, slipping into game face for a moment before controlling himself.

Dacascos looked at his lieutenant coldly, deliberately sliding into game face. "You're more valuable to me keeping _our_ people in line and eliminating troublemakers than you are as dust at the end of a Slayer's stake. Or, with _this_ Slayer, than as dust at the edge of her battle axe. Keep it in mind," he said. He maintained the eye contact until Lohse finally glanced away and nodded abruptly before continuing.

"On the other hand," Dacascos cut over further argument smoothly. "We seem to be developing a different issue. Someone else seems to be hunting our people up top as well." Cocking his head and giving Lohse a level stare, he suggested, "If you're eager to have something useful to do, take Ice and some minions and go find whoever that is and eliminate them. I have other ideas for dealing with the Slayer."

The Japanese vampire stood in a fluid motion, picking up a scabbarded blade from beside his chair. "Come on, Lohse. Let's go hunting." The pair of them headed out down an exit tunnel, Lohse cracking his knuckles and using his radio to call out for several of his better people as they left.

Shaking his head, Dacascos remarked, "Remind me to consider letting Lohse have his head to go after the Slayer, Rhoden. He's beginning to annoy me." Rhoden smirked and nodded his assent.

After a moment, he cocked his head, looking at Rhoden again. "Speaking of other ideas," Rhoden glanced over at him inquisitively, "Did you send the messages I asked you to?"

"Of course," Rhoden told him. "One to LA, and one to, I believe... our contact in South America?" Pausing a moment, he considered and added, reflectively, "That one may take awhile to reach its recipient."

**...**

_**Wednesday September 9, 1998; Sunnydale High School, morning.**_

Rolling up her windows after setting the locks and anti-theft devices, Cordelia Chase took a quick moment to check her hair and makeup in the side mirror of her new convertible. With a satisfied nod, she straightened and headed off across the side parking lot towards the school, glancing worriedly at the graying skies overhead.

Whoever the idiot was who said it never rains in Southern California was should try living there. Even if the overcast skies didn't deliver on the deluge the Weather Channel had been predicting, still, the humidity was _murder_ on one's hair and complexion. Deciding that she'd make it to the doors well before any drizzle started, Cordelia slowed her pace a bit, her stylish skirt snapping around her thighs as she walked.

A screech of tires and the snarl of a big hemi pulling in drew her attention back to the parking lot. Glancing back, she saw Tor Hauer's restored 'Cuda pulling into the space near hers. _'He'd better not even __think__ about scratching or bumping my car,'_ Cordelia thought. _'I don't even want to think about what that'd do to my premiums, jeeze.'_

Distracted, the first intimation Cordelia had that her way into the school wasn't unobstructed was when someone deliberately stepped into her path between her and the side doors. With a muttered, "Well pardon _me_, jeeze" she paused and stepped back, dismissing her distraction as she started to go around.

The person stepped in her way again, and she focused, registering Jack O'Toole standing in her way and smirking at her, his two buddies flanking him a slight distance away. Cordelia stepped back, drawing herself up to full Chase height and presence.

"Oh look, vermin," she said. "I see we need to spray again."

That took the smirk off Jack's face, and his eyes narrowed as he took a step forward into her space. "If it isn't Harris' girlfriend," he said, looking her up and down. "Man, what'd that loser ever do to score a piece like you?" The two sycophants sniggered, leering at her also.

"Oh, the usual," Cordelia said, tossing her head. "Personality, guts, personal hygiene... not being neutered." Smiling nastily, she cocked her head slightly. "All _four_ of which _you_ fail making the grade on."

"Oh, wow," Jack's face went still. "That's making it personal, cheerleader. Sure you want to do that?" He thumped his half smoked cigarette to one side.

Cordelia wanted to throw a quick glance around to see if there were any witnesses, or better yet, any jocks in the side area. But she knew from experience better than to take her eyes off of demons, vampires, and thugs. It only encouraged them. Instead, she narrowed her eyes slightly, doing her best to look unimpressed, or at least give a convincing imitation of fearlessness. A part of her mind wondered if there was any way that she could surreptitiously get the can of mace out of her handbag without calling attention to it.

She made a mental note to keep it in her hand _next_ time...

"The most personal thing I want to have to do with you, _Jack_, involves a cattle prod and a firehose," Cordelia remarked. "You could probably use the bath. I understand you've already _had_ the shock therapy."

Jack scowled, leaning forward with his eyes suddenly going flat. Cordelia suddenly had a flash that just _maybe_ baiting certified psychopaths wasn't _quite_ as harmless as baiting Harris and similar social rejects.

"Hey, Cordy," a male voice said from just behind her. She'd been so focused on Jack that she hadn't even registered anyone coming up behind her, and she had to resist the reflex to jump out of her skin as a hand clapped itself on her shoulder. O'Toole straightened, and took a very slight half step back.

"Going inside, or just going to impede traffic?" Tor Hauer asked her, giving her a slight push forward. "Hey, Jack," he said amiably, nodding at the shorter twenty year old. "You're blocking my way."

O'Toole flicked his gaze up to Tor, looking bored. "I'm thinking I'm getting tired of caring, Hauer," he remarked.

"That's cool." Tor said easily. "We can stand here gazing into each other's eyes all day, you, me, Heidi, and your two butt-monkeys. But sooner or later someone's gonna wonder if you're frozen or just queer for me."

Jack flushed. Shaking his head, he shoved past Tor, bumping him into Cordelia with his shoulder. "See you around, cheerleader," he snarled as he went by. "Hauer," Jack called from behind them after he and his followers were past. "You, me. We're going to have a talk."

"Right," Tor took his hand off of Cordelia's shoulder to gesture to the doors. "Going in?"

Inside, Cordelia shook off the urge to slump against the nearest wall, instead turning to look at the other two seniors. "Well," she said, "I suppose I _should_ thank you or something."

"Hey. I just wanted inside before the bell rang," Tor said, giving her a lopsided grin.

Heidi shook her head, adding, "We didn't realize it meant doing West Side Story on the side steps."

"Besides," Tor gave her an easy shrug. "Thanks implies gratitude and even friendliness, and we _know_ we're not going there."

"Right," Cordelia's lips twitched reluctantly. "We're not." Cocking her head, she gave him a curious look. "You know, you two _could_ have walked down to the other side door," she said.

"Not gonna _get_ in the habit of walking around Jack O'Toole," Tor said, and Heidi nodded agreement. "That starts all sorts of badness."

"Testosterone much?" Cordelia threw back her head, laughing.

"Naw," Heidi said. "Matter of principle. You don't let things like that think you're afraid of them, even if you are"

Tor hesitated, then gave Cordelia a serious look. "Look, might want to watch Jack. Ever since his buddy Bob got killed over the summer, I think he's gone past 'thug' and into 'full blown psychotic'. Screwing with him starts going way past dangerous."

"Right. I'll keep that in mind," Cordelia said, seriously. "But not so that it stops _you_ from doing it," she couldn't help adding.

"Screwing with us _is_ dangerous," Heidi remarked. "See you around." Her and Tor went around Cordelia and into the hallway, heading towards the lunch room.

"Hoo boy," Cordelia said, shaking her head slowly. "This place gets more messed up every _year_."

**...**

_**Wednesday September 9, 1998; Sunnydale, Kaylee's Diner, late morning/early afternoon.**_

Pushing open the diner door, Faith sauntered in heading towards the back. Nodding or tossing a quick smile back at the occasional 'hello' from one of the waitresses, she paused as a familiar face caught her eye.

"Hey, Padre," Faith grinned, slipping into the booth across from her acquaintance from Kent. Brother David looked up from his paper, a slow smile breaking across his face when he recognized her.

"Faith, right?" She nodded and he folded the paper and set it aside. "Good to see you again."

"Likewise," Faith said. "So... playing hookey?"

"No, no," Brother David laughed. "I don't have any classes until this afternoon, so I stopped in for a bit of early lunch while I was out and about. You?"

"Naw. Non-school type," Faith said, grinning. "Meeting a friend here for coffee, and decided to hit early for a snack since I was already up." Cocking her head, she added, "And before you ask, he's a senior, so he gets to eat off campus. No hookiness there either."

"Wasn't going to ask," he said. "But," he aimed a finger at her, "You, young lady, should be considering your future. Dropping out doesn't help that."

"Right," Faith said, dryly. Pushing her hair back from her face, she grinned. "That's what my Watcher said."

"And you should listen to him," Brother David stated, his eyes twinkling. "He sounds like a perceptive fellow. Ok, end obligatory 'adult to wayward teenager' lecture."

"Cool." Faith said.

"So, did you manage to resolve your earlier difficulty? You and your friends?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry - never did make it back by," Faith nodded. "Problem solved, bad guys spanked." The corners of her lips curling up, she added, "Thanks to your non-help, anyway."

"Glad I was able to not assist," he said, solemnly. They both laughed. "And good deal. While I'm not, err, active at it as you are, I'm glad I was able to contribute something to helping keep the 'night life' here under control."

"It did. Hey," Faith paused, a thought striking her. "Can you do, like, blessings and holy water and stuff?"

"Hmm." He considered for a moment, then nodded. "Within limits. I'm a Piarist, so as a member of an Order of the Clerks Regular, I'm empowered to perform most of the Rites and Rituals of the Church."

"Ah." Faith grinned. "I have no idea what you just said, but I did get a 'yes' outta that."

Brother David laughed. "Yes. I can 'do Holy Water' as you asked, and some blessings." He shrugged, "However, a majority of Churches have a font for Holy Water so that parishioners can fill up a jug or bottle to take home for their personal fanes, if they have one."

"Oh. Didn't know that. Cool," Faith said. After a moment, her brow furrowed slightly. "Kind of a problem, though. We tend to use a lot filling up super-soakers, soaking stakes, and filling paint balls. It kinda gets questions if you're filling up by the gallon, you think?"

"Paint balls?" Brother David stared at her, then broke out laughing. "My, that's rather enterprising. Yes, I suppose it would at that."

"Well, yeah. One of my buds came up with an idea to refill the paint balls with Holy Water for nailing vamps," Faith said, laughing with him. "Don't snicker - it works great."

He shook his head, "It's just picturing the looks on the faces of some of my Brethren if they were to watch someone filling a super-soaker from a font that does it." He laughed again, "Personally, I'm of the opinion that Christ must have had a sense of humor. And it is for a cause I'm certain He'd approve of."

"Well, yeah," Faith said. "We're not trying to be irreverent or nuthin'."

Brother David nodded. Taking a card out of his jacket pocket, he handed it to her. "Here you go, the phone number to the rectory," he said. "If you find a need for an, err, resupply, call me and I'll see about coming out to Bless your containers for you."

"Cool. Thanks," Faith nodded, slipping the card into one of her back pockets. "I'm gonna go grab a booth and get something to eat while I'm waiting for my lunch date. See ya."

"Oh, you're quite welcome," Brother David chuckled, shaking his head. "That made my day, actually."

**...**

_**Wednesday September 9, 1998; Sunnydale High School, afternoon.**_

Closing the door behind her, Faith leaned into the window of Scott's 280ZX to tell him she might see him later at the Bronze before heading into the school. Merging with a small group of seniors coming back from lunch, she slid in through the doors with them and trailed along before breaking off to head into the library. Spotting Giles working on sorting stacks of books onto a cart for re-shelving, she ambled over to him, her hands in her back pockets.

"Hey, Jeeves," Faith leaned up against a table, watching him work. "How goes?"

"Why hello, Faith," Giles acknowledged her presence with a glance and a small smile before turning back to his sorting. "Quite well, actually, all things considered. Yourself?"

"Not too bad, all in all," she allowed. "None of the gang around?"

"No. Well, they were in briefly earlier this morning," Giles said. "I'm not expecting them back until later this afternoon during late period free times."

"Ah. Cool," Faith nodded. "They survived last night ok?"

"I believe Willow was, err, rather stiff a-and complaining," Giles stated, "However, aside from that they seemed to be in excellent health and spirits."

"Heh." Faith grinned, "She'll manage. Red's tougher than she thinks."

"Quite. Or one rather hopes, anyway," he said. "I'm rather afraid that I'm not going to have much time to spend chatting with you for awhile," Giles added. "At least not until I finish shelving all of these and updating my catalogs with the new arrivals." Faith shrugged, and he gave her a bit of a mischievous smile, "Unless you'd care to assist me with this while we converse?"

Giving him a look of mock horror, Faith shook her head. "What, work? I think I have allergies," she said, smirking at him.

"Somehow, I'm rather unsurprised," Giles admitted.

"No worries," Faith said. Pulling a dog eared and well worn paperback out of the side pocket of her pack, she waved it at him. "I'll just park it over here out of the way."

"Very well," Giles said, nodding. "Ah, err, what are you reading there, out of curiosity?"

"'Least you weren't surprised I'm _reading_," Faith said, making a face. She held up the book so he could read the cover.

"Well, we've established you _can_ do so, and that you're even capable of enjoying it at times," Giles said, peering at the paperback. "The 'Tao of Jeet Kun Do'?"

"Yup." Nodding, she added, "Kanno gave it to me to read. Said it'd help me with like, principles of combat and stuff."

"Ah." Giles pushed his glassed down a bit to look at her over the tops, "And has it?"

"Some. Well," Faith scowled, "Some of it I get. Like where Lee talks about bein' formless and going with whatever works to get the job done. It's like street fighting," she said. Giles cocked his head, giving her an inquiring look. "You wanna figure out the other guy's moves and then hit him with something way out of what he knows, screw up his world, and take him apart before he knows what hit him, right?"

"Quite," Giles said. "I'm, err, familiar with the concept."

"Right," Faith said. "Other stuff, like where he starts talking about 'consciousness of self', and 'having no limitations being a limitation' and all that Zen crap and philosophy it gets kind of confusing," she admitted.

"Ah." Putting his hands in his pockets, Giles looked abstracted for a few moments. "Hrmm," he said, finally. "I-I haven't read the work, and I don't believe we have a copy in our catalog here. However, I do have _some_ training in martial philosophies. Perhaps if I can acquire a copy at one of the local bookstores, then once I've read it we can go over it together and I can assist in, err, unraveling the complexities with you?"

"Really?" Faith raised her eyebrows, "That'd be cool."

Giles nodded, giving her a slight smile. "Well, I'll leave you to it, then. Do attempt to look studious if Snyder or one of the teachers wanders in, and perhaps they won't notice you don't belong here."

Grinning, Faith headed over to one of the side tables. "Sure thing." Un-slinging her pack and setting it down in a chair, she sprawled gracefully into the one next to it and opened her paperback as Giles took the cart into the lower stacks.


	7. Chapter 6: Storm Front

**Chapter 6: Storm Front -**

_**Wednesday September 9, 1998; Sunnydale High School, night.**_

"Ok, here we go," Jonathan opened the door to the computer sciences lab, looking around carefully.

"Cool. How'd you do that?" Lance asked him. "Pick it?"

"Uh, with this," Jonathan said, rolling his eyes and holding out a key palmed in his hand. "I lifted it out of the Janitor's office from the spare key sets." Shooting the other teen a look, he added, "I'm a programmer, not a jewel thief, jeeze."

"Yeah yeah, McCoy," Freddy Iverson gave Jonathan a gentle shove, "Are we gonna do this or hang out in the hall all night? Let's go."

"Oh, right." Pushing the door open, Jonathan entered the computer lab, the other two teens following him. "Hang on," he said. Going over to one of the lab computers with a 21" monitor hooked up to it, he hit the start button to cold boot it. A flash of lightning lit the windows briefly, a low rumble of thunder following a few minutes later.

"Man," Lance said, looking nervously at the windows. "It's gonna storm like crazy, I'll bet. That going to cause us problems?"

"Uh... " Jonathan thought for a minute, then shook his head. "Naw. Not unless it, uh, takes out a transformer or something. Everything here has a UPS and a backup power supply, including the main frame."

"Cool." Freddy studied the monitor for a minute while the system went through the boot up screens. "Ever wonder why a little town high school like this has such a high tech computer lab?" Jonathan glanced at him, looking puzzled, and he gestured at the screen, "I mean: top end Pentiums, nineteen and twenty-one inch monitors, even a big mainframe for the school?"

"Uh," Jonathan shrugged. "Not really. It's Sunnydale - this town is weird."

Another crack of thunder sounded, and they all jumped slightly. "I'll say," Lance stated.

After typing for several minutes at the freshly booted system's mainframe, Jonathan grinned. "Ok, I'm in. And... " he entered a password, crossing his fingers after, "_And_ I'm into the network as a SysAdmin. Full network privileges."

"Way to go Jonno," Lance said, grinning. Freddy clapped Jonathan on the shoulder.

"Ok," Jonathan flushed slightly at his friend's praise. "Hand me my bag, huh?" Lance reached over and picked up Jonathan's computer bag, set it on the table and sliding it over to him. "Thanks." Unzipping it and reaching inside, he pulled out a small stack of Jazz discs and a portable Jazz drive, then disappeared with the drive under the table to crawl behind the tower case.

"Cool," he said, crawling back out. "Now we wait for it to register the drive," he flexed his fingers while watching the screen, "And... bingo."

"We wait while you load the program," Lance said. Eying the stack of discs, he asked, "Lot of discs - how many gigs is this thing, anyway?"

"Uh, too many," Jonathan said, making a face. "And the ram and CPU requirements are murder."

"Oh, enough tech specs," Freddy said, impatiently. "What about the simulation? Who'd you pick?"

"Kind of a composite," Jonathan said, shrugging. "Best features of a lot of different models and actresses all kind of smerged together in Photoshop, and then graphed onto a 3D matrix."

"Oh, man?" Lance scowled. "You didn't go with any of the cheerleaders like we talked about? Like, Cordelia?"

"_No_, man," Jonathan shot Lance a black look. "We discussed that, right? No - that's too much like stalking. It's just... weird." At Lance's skeptical look, he said, "Look, _you_ want to go to class and look some girl in the eye knowing you used her in a 'girl interaction simulation'?"

"Oh yeah. Like _Lance_ ever gets all the way up to the eyes when he looks," Freddy said, snickering. "Screw that. What I want to know is if you got the _extra_ features in. _You_ know," he nudged Jonathan in the shoulder.

"No. And don't jostle the programmer," Jonathan's scowl deepened. "_Just_ what we all agreed on, right? We wanted an AI simulation so we could get used to talking to hot girls and learn how to interact with them. So we can then, like, get real dates? Remember? With _real_ girls?" Rolling his eyes he said, "You want a female sex toy, wait 'til you get a girlfriend. Otherwise, it's just sick." Real low under his breath he muttered, "Kinda hot, but sick."

"Hey, Female Interface and Interaction Artificial Intelligence Simulation, right?" Lance said, snickering. "Sex is _interfacing_."

At Jonathan's glare at Lance, Freddy shook his head and made a 'cool it' gesture to the other teen. "All right, all right. Jeeze," Freddy said, throwing his hands up. "Just askin', is all."

There was another flash of lightning outside, and rain started pattering on the lab windows. A few big drops at first, then more until it was an almost steady roar of hailstorm like drops. Jonathan watched the load progress bar, and removed the disk, swapping it for the next one in the stack.

"Ok, yeah, see the point," Lance said. "Don't _like_ it, but I _see_ it," he smirked. "How many more discs?"

"Two more after this," Jonathan stated. "Then compile it, and run it. And cross our fingers that we got all the bugs out this time."

Both of the others nodded, watching the progress bar eagerly. "Man, that is a big program," Freddy said.

"Yeah," Jonathan nodded, crossing his fingers and hoping it'd run properly. "It's the AI - all the branching decision trees. And... for some reason, the magical enhancement to the AI simulation, you know, to make it act real?" They nodded. "That kinda like, bulked the code _way_ up."

Several minutes later, he pulled the last disc out. "Ok, that's it. Now to compile... "

They all waited impatiently as the compiler did its work. More lighting flashes and thunder cracks came from outside, several of them close enough to make them jump. Jonathan fidgeted. He didn't want to say it after his argument with Lance, but he was as impatient to see the simulator run as the others were. At least partly to see if he'd managed to pull off the incredibly tricky programming and magical enhancement task... but also to see if the learning AI worked the way they wanted it to.

He was as interested in learning how to get comfortable dealing with hot girls without stuttering or falling all over his tongue as the other two were. Especially hot girls like that Faith chick, man...

The system beeped, signaling that the compiler had finished. Flexing his fingers, Jonathan took a deep breath and pulled up the main screen onto this terminal from the main frame. "Ok... " Grinning, he moved the mouse cursor over Start and hit Run, then his grin broadened when the starting screens came up without any glitches.

"Whoa... " Lance breathed, staring at the model on the splash screen. "She's _hot_. Who is she?"

"Uh, the base is some teen model I found on the Web. Kim-something," Jonathan said, his eyes glued to the screen as the splash page and intro faded to be replaced by the textured 3D model walking into the screen and striking several sultry and provocative poses. "With like, enhancements merged in from Pamela Anderson, a few actresses, and some centerfolds." More than a slight tone of pride in his voice, he gestured at the screen, "And all of the motion captures, vocals, and gestures came from various, err, other sources."

"Coool," Freddy said. He clapped Jonathan on the shoulder. "Done good, dude." His eyes widening, he added, "We could make a _fortune_ marketing this."

"Yeah, except there's no home system that'd even run it," Jonathan said.

"Uh, ok... then how're we gonna use it?" Lance asked, puzzled. "Break in here every time?"

"No, jeeze." Jonathan smirked. "We leave it in the mainframe, right? Hidden as other files and programs. Then when we want to from home, we just dial up, link into the school mainframe with our passwords, and run it." He smirked, "And when we quit, it automatically kills the logs and goes back into hiding."

"Genius," Freddy said. "Ok, so.. run it already." Lance nodded eagerly.

"Right." Jonathan nodded, grinning a bit nervously. Moving the cursor, he picked a simulation from the menu and clicked to start it running. All of them waited impatiently, holding their breaths as the little hourglass came up and cycled.

Outside, a particularly nasty thunderhead from the storm they'd almost forgotten about centered over the school - and the associated Hellmouth beneath the library not far away, lightning flickering in its depths. There was an almost deafening ripping sound as a bolt seared out of the huge thundercloud to strike a nearby electrical pole and transformer unit. Lights dimmed all over the school and the surrounding neighborhoods.

The three teens jumped at the thunder crack right on the heels of the lightning strike, sounding like it was almost right next to them. Jonathan's eyes widened as he saw the 'network connection' icon flash several times, denoting that the connection to the main servers was going iffy.

"Oh, shit," he said. Jonathan slid out of his chair, ducking under the table to check the network cabling. He didn't _think_ it was loose, but he figured it didn't hurt to make sure. There wasn't much he could do if it was the strike causing the connection to go wonky...

Another even more massive strike hit the top of the school above the library before arcing over into the transformer, sending a surge down through the school's wiring. Above Jonathan, the lights dimmed then flickered out and the system's monitor pulsed suddenly. He heard Lance and Freddy's chairs slide back and away from the monitor, seeing their feet go to either side as they got out from in front of the screen. There was another strike, the screen pulsed again and then blew out in a hail of glass, scorched plastic, and foul smelling electrical smoke.

**...**

_**Wednesday September 9, 1998; Sunnydale, night.**_

Working her way from the edges of Sunnydale's small business district into the residential areas Faith found herself feeling pretty satisfied. Even relatively happy at the moment. While she hadn't yet gotten a chance to satisfy her curiosity about the altercation between Xander and whoever that 'Jack' character was, they'd managed to get in a pretty good afternoon and evening of training and nail a few vamps on patrol. Following a trip to the Bronze, she'd begged off from a ride and gone solo patrolling while Cordelia dropped Xander off before heading home.

Now, several hours later, there were eight fewer vamps and a couple fewer demons hunting the Hellmouth, and Faith had a couple extra hundred lining her pocket and for the 'Scooby fund': three of the vamps she'd nailed had been some of Dacascos' street level dealers. Not a bad day and night, all in all.

A flash of lightning lit up the clouds at the edge of town, followed by a low rumbling of thunder, and she picked up her pace a bit. A few blocks later, the first fat, scattered drops hit her, quickly turning into rain. Half a block later, the rain became a deluge, sheets coming down like someone was emptying buckets on the neighborhood.

_Crap_.

Too far to go back and spend the night in the little apartment at the training area - it was almost as far from here back to there as it was to her motel. Faith took temporary - and inadequate - shelter under a large tree in someone's front yard while she considered her options. Harris' place wasn't _too_ many blocks away, but that wasn't really an option. He'd take her in, but she had the feeling his folks would give _both_ of them hassles.

She was already soaked. Deciding that she couldn't possibly get any wetter, she hunched her shoulders and headed out in the direction of the Sunnydale Motor Lodge. Occasional lightning flashes lit up the houses and streets around her as she moved through them.

Not too many blocks later, she realized the area was starting to look vaguely familiar to her. Faith stopped at a street corner trying to get her bearings. Another flash lit up the street signs at the intersection, and she remembered that Willow's place wasn't too many blocks away, and only a short jog over.

If she was real lucky, the red head would still be up. And if not, the detour wouldn't take her much out of her way and Faith _still_ wouldn't be any more soaked through.

Her mind made up, a short jog found her looking up from Willow's front yard at the lighted upstairs windows, trying to remember which set belonged to the little witch. After a brief while, she recognized Willow's silhouette passing in front of the curtains in the room nearest her. It took the work of a moment to swarm up the tree near Willow's room, and she was crouching on the porch roof outside of the red-head's window tapping on the glass.

A few taps later, the curtains moved aside and the red-head peered out a bit hesitantly. After a moment, she slid the window up, frowning. "Faith? Jeeze - What are you doing out there?" Willow asked.

"Drowning?" Faith smirked. "Got caught out on patrol by this mess. Can I come in?"

"Uh, I dunno, can you?" Biting her lower lip slightly, Willow gave her a worried look.

"Smart ass," Faith muttered. "Step aside and let's see. If I can't, you can stake me and put me outta my misery, hey?"

Giggling, Willow nodded. Holding the curtains open, she stepped to one side as Faith shook her head and climbed in through the open window, shutting it behind her.

"See? Un-vamped and all," Faith said, smirking.

"Cool," Willow said, nodding. "Uh, stay right there and I'll go grab some towels and something for you to change into, ok?"

A few dripping minutes later, Willow slipped back into her room with a bundle of fluffy towels over one arm. Rummaging through a dresser drawer, she pulled out a sweatshirt and a pair of sweat pants, handing them and the towels to Faith.

"Thanks," Faith said, setting the bundle on a chair and pulling her jacket off. When she unconcernedly started to pull her t-shirt off over her head, Willow flushed red and hastily turned her back.

After several minutes, Faith remarked, "Ok, you can turn back around now. I'm decent. Or at least dressed."

"Cool," Willow nodded, turning around. She snickered, quickly turning it into a cough at the last minute at Faith's glare. Faith looked down at her dark green sweat pants and bright red cartoonish sweatshirt and back up at her.

"The gods hate me, you know this?" Faith stated. Willow nodded, unable to hide a small grin. "Hello Cthulhu?" Both of Faith's eyebrows went up at her.

"It's a-a, err, a web comic? Hello Kitty meets Cthulhu?" Willow ventured.

"Yup. The gods _hate_ me," Faith said, nodding. Shaking her head, she broke into a reluctant grin, "'Least it's dry, anyway. Thanks," she said. "Uh, wasn't sure you'd still be up?"

"Getting caught up on homework," Willow said, gesturing at her computer. "Working on a term paper."

"You have term papers already?" Faith said, frowning.

"Uh... no. It's for later on in the term?" Willow said, squeaking slightly. Faith's eyes widened, and Willow shrugged, "Hey! I like to get things done before they're due, right?"

"Right," Faith said. Her lips twitched up into a small grin. "Way, way, _way_ before."

"Ok, so maybe it is a _little_ obsessive," Willow admitted, laughing.

"Just a touch," Faith said, dryly. She grabbed a seat on the edge of Willow's bed, leaning against the headboard. "We really need to find you the fun, girl."

"Hey! I have fun." Willow said, sitting down at the foot of the bed, facing her. "I-it's just a-a different _kind_ of fun, that's all!"

"Right," Faith said, nodding seriously. "Tell you what, I'll make a deal with you."

"Uh... " Cocking her head, Willow gave her a suspicious look. "What kind of deal?"

"You help me out a bit with stuff when Giles starts tutoring me," Faith said, "And I'll show _you_ how to loosen up a bit and help out with the 'cool' thing."

"Hey! I'm cool! I'm dating a musician and everything!" Willow protested. her eyes widened slightly, "Waitaminnit. Giles is tutoring you?"

"Well, haven't decided yet," Faith admitted. "I'm kinda leaning that way, though. Maybe. We'll see."

"Oh, that's so cool!" Willow grinned at her, "So, are you going to be starting school with us, cause we could get like classes together and -"

"Whoa whoa whoa, Red," Faith said, shaking her head. "Slow down. No. Like, homeschooling, right? And don't say anything to G or anyone until I decide for sure, 'k?"

"Ah. Ok," Wilow said, making a lip zipping motion over her grin. She paused, frowning slightly. "Ok, I help you with like, lessons and stuff. So what do I get out of it? I-I mean, not that I _mind_ that... "

"Hah. Easy," Faith grinned back. "I do the heavy lifting on teaching you how to dress hot and put some zing into things."

"Zing?" Willow laughed. "Umm, no offense, Faith, but... " Faith cocked her head, raising her eyebrows, and Willow added hastily, "Not, like, thatthere'sanything_wrong_withit, but... Idon'tthinkyourstyleisreallykinda_my_style, y'know?"

Her eyes almost crossing for a moment, Faith deciphered that and nodded. "Right. Figured we'd start kind of slow and work our way up to the leather minis and fishnets later. Maybe like, tight jeans and a little midriff first, and latex, piercings, and bodices after awhile."

Willow snickered, "Uh, yeah - like 'in about a century' after awhile." Grinning, she said, "My mom would _kill_ me if I got piercings, if she like, noticed."

"Hey, they don't have to be like, _visible_," Faith said, smirking. At Willow's alarmed expression, she added, "Naw. Thought maybe we could do like one or two days a week where you wear something a little racier than usual and get used to the idea. Start off slow."

"Hmm."

"C'mon, it'll be fun," Faith nudged Willow's knee with her foot and waggled her eyebrows. "You can go shopping with me and Cordy and we can do girl stuff at the mall."

"Uhh... " Willow scowled, and Faith kicked herself, mentally.

"Oh, yeah. You really don't like Cordy," Faith said. "Ok, you an' me then. I learned taste from the best, anyway," Faith grinned.

"Well... it's not like I don't _like_ Cordelia like her, but," Willow broke off at Faith's frankly skeptical look. "Ok, no, I don't really like her," she sighed.

"S'ok. At least you seem to be getting along with her again," Faith said, shrugging.

"Well, she's really not being as mean as she used to be," Willow said, grudgingly. "A-an-and she is dating my best friend. Friends? So, I'm trying more."

Faith nodded. "Y'know, Cordy's really not all that bad once you get to know her a bit," she said. Her brows lifted as she processed the full statement, "Friends? Best friends?"

"Well, kinda. Ok, _not_, I mean that you're b-both dating Cordelia," Willow said, and Faith grinned. "But, as in I'd _like_ to be. Best friends that is, _not_ like to be dating Cordelia." She sighed, shrugging, "You know what I mean... I kinda miss having a best friend."

"Ah. Yeah, I guess I kinda suck at this friend thing," Faith admitted.

"Well, no, not really," Willow said, laughing. "You're great. It's just that, since Buffy took off, I haven't had a best girl pal to like, hang out and do things with. E-except for Xander and Oz, but there's the whole not-being-girls thing there and... "

"Yeah, I know," Faith grinned. "You mean like a best bud, like me and C." Willow nodded, biting her lip and Faith spread her hands slightly, "Yeah. Me and C just kinda clicked when we hooked up, can't explain it. Not like I've been wanting to ignore you or nothing."

"No, no... I understand," Willow said, her expression earnest. "It was like that with me and Buffy."

"Right," Faith said. She made a slight face. "Can't help it that I'm not Buffy, y'know?"

"I know," Willow said. She put on her 'resolve face', saying, "And you know what? Let's do it. I-I'll even get along with Cordelia. It'll be fun." She thought for a minute, adding, "Ok, in a kind of a playing Frisbee with a doberman kinda way, but fun."

Laughing, Faith nudged Willow with her toe again and grinned, "There you go. Coolness."

A bright, almost incandescent flash lit up the windows and the house lights dimmed suddenly. The 'crack!' and crash of the thunderclap followed almost immediately on the heels of the lightning strike. Both girl's eyes widened.

"Whoa," Faith said. She'd somehow gotten from the bed to the window before she realized it, peering out through the curtains. "That hit something major, sounded like. And close." Willow nodded, joining her at the window to try to look out.

Another crash came, the flash lighting up the room and the thunder crack almost deafening.

"Uhhh... maybe you'd better sleep _here_," Willow suggested. "I don't think that's going to let up any time soon." Biting her lower lip, Faith nodded seriously.

"I think I could stand a sleepover," she said. "Hope that didn't hit nuthin' important."

**...**

_**Wednesday September 9, 1998; Sunnydale High School, night.**_

"wow." Jonathan blinked several times, after images from that last flash still dancing across his retinas. He peered cautiously out from under the table. The center of the room and the area beyond the computer desk was filling with bluish smoke, mixed with patches of yellow-green and lit occasionally with bright flashes as the odd shower of sparks arced out of the monitor face above him. Through the smoke, he could make out the outlines of his two friends coughing and stumbling a bit as they tried waving the acrid mist away from them. There was a sudden brightening of the room as the overhead fluorescents flared back to full brightness.

_'Jeeze,'_ Jonathan thought, a sudden clammy feeling running over him, _'Sure glad I was under the table. I coulda been __killed__.'_

Scrambling out from under the computer table, he edged out around the smoke cloud before hesitantly standing up. "You guys alright?"

"Yeah," Freddy's voice came from the other side of the room, mixed with coughing. "Couple of cuts, no big."

"Me too," Lance said. "We kinda scrambled out of the way when the screen started glowing." He coughed raggedly, "Hey! I thought you said there were like, surge protectors and stuff?"

"There _are_," Jonathan protested. Some of the acrid smoke wafted up his nose and he hacked a few times, backing away and waving the stuff out of his face. "Guess," cough, "They're not up to a full blown strike on the power grid though."

"Yeah, right," Freddy agreed. "Oh, wow - check that out!" Jonathan didn't have to follow Iverson's pointing arm to guess what 'that' was. A large shower of sparks arced out of the broken monitor into the center of the smoke cloud, coalescing in the center and filing it with an eerie - and expanding - glow. After a long moment, a _'ffrrritzing!'_ sound came from under the table along with an acrid electrical smell.

The glow swirled around as another lightning strike lit up the windows, drawing more sparks into itself and beginning to gradually draw into a tall shape in the center of the cloud.

"Oh, that's really _really_ not good," Jonathan remarked. Vague memories of all the weirdness he'd seen and heard of associated with SHS suddenly flooded his mind, giving birth to dozens of possible explanations for the glowing shape. All of them _really_ bad.

"No _shit_, Sherlock," Freddy said, agreeing. "What do we _do_ about it?"

"Run?" Lance's voice came from near the front of the cloud. He backed away from it hastily until his rear hit another lab table. Jonathan thought that sounded like a remarkably good idea. Too bad his feet didn't seem to want to move - in fact, his entire lower body seemed frozen, rooting him in place.

The smoke cloud began to swirl slowly, then faster, shrinking in on itself and the glowing form in the center. Papers, diskettes, and other loose items - including Jonathan's computer bag - flew off of lab tables to be sucked into the swirling cloud, pelting the three of them as they flew past. Jonathan made a half hearted grab at the bag as it slid off the table, missing it by feet. A trashcan near the front wall thumped as it fell over and papers and debris flew into the shrinking cloud.

Lance suddenly found his feet and his ability to move, making a sound suspiciously like an _'__eep__!'_ and scrambling for the door. It slammed behind him and he could be heard pounding away down the hall towards the school exits.

The wind, the swirling, and the hail of debris ended as quickly as it'd begun, leaving a solid - and very attractive - form clad in a skimpy outfit standing where the smoke cloud had been. Jonathan pulled a computer printout off of his head and crumpled it, letting it drop from his hand as he heard Freddy exclaim softly, "Oh, _wooww_... "

The dark haired, extremely curvy, and very tanned model from the opening animations and screens stood where the smoke cloud had been, holding up a hand and stroking her arm with a bemused expression. Jonathan swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry, as she ran both hands over her body, across her breasts, and down her thighs.

A pair of dark eyes riveted him and a sultry smile crossed a pair of full lips. She cocked her head, "Would one of you be 'J. Levinson'?"

Jonathan nodded nervously. She stepped over to him, smiling, ignoring Freddy's fervent, "Me! Me! That's me!"

"You created me, then," she said, running her fingertips through Jonathan's hair and down along his face. He swallowed again, feeling faint. Nodding, she ran her hand down across his chest and then lower over his belt, smiling. "I'm going to have to find a way to thank you," she leaned forward, the skin tight, low cut party dress he'd found for the model melting away from her and vanishing, "Properly."

Gulping, Jonathan heard Freddy hit the floor behind her with a thump as she hooked the other hand behind his head and drew him in. He felt fingers working at his belt buckle and all of the blood rushed from his head.


	8. Chapter 7: Storm Break

**Chapter 7: Storm Break -**

_**Thursday September 10, 1998; Sunnydale High School cafeteria, noonish.**_

"Ok, so we're good to go on our err, magic club then?" Willow glanced at Michael at his end of the table they were sharing with his girlfriend, Oz, Xander, Cordelia, and the two former Cordettes. Stacey rolled her eyes slightly, nudging Michael good naturedly with an elbow - showing that she possibly wasn't completely clueless about his witchcraft practices.

"According to Amy, she's good to go with it," Michael said, nodding. "Just need to find a regular place to meet."

"Magic club?" Both of Aura's eyebrows went up and she hung her head slightly. "Oh, we have _so_ far come down in the world." Cordelia snickered, looking sympathetic.

Xander snickered. "Our hearts bleed," he said. "Or at least they would if we weren't so busy gloating about having dragged you down to our levels."

"You wish, dork," Aura sniffed, giving him a lofty look. "We prefer to look at it as an ongoing process of elevating _you_ to _our_ rarefied levels."

"Charity work," Tamara agreed. "Very long term and arduous charity work. Except for Oz, who was already cool." The guitarist raised an eyebrow, then inclined his head graciously.

"Well, that and the fact that now Harmony will barely even look at you two," Stacey added.

"Unkind, but so very true," Aura said.

Grinning, Willow rolled her eyes, looking around the lunch room. After a minute, she frowned slightly, nudging Oz. "Hey... isn't that Freddy Iverson over there?"

Oz glanced over, following where her eyes were looking. He nodded, frowning. "Think so."

"Huh." Xander said, slowly. "When did Freddy's hair go all silver like?"

"Bleached it, maybe?" Cordelia studied the school newspaper editor for a few minutes until he exited through the lunchroom doors after putting his tray away.

Oz pursed his lips, cocking his head slightly. "Maybe... " he said, slowly.

"Well, it looks good on him," Cordelia said. "Odd, but good."

"Yeah," Xander said. "In a kind of platinum haired Spike sorta way."

Cordelia shivered. "Oh, right. Never mind."

Oz changed the subject. "So. Next weekend." Everyone looked at him. "As in weekend not the one coming up," there were nods from around the table and he continued, "I'm thinking 'end of summer blowout' party at the beach."

"Oh!" Willow nodded enthusiastically. "You mean like the last time, with the bonfire and the food and the guitar and t-th-the Tecate and everything?" He nodded and she smiled, "Cool. Maybe Faith can bring Scott."

"Beer? Bonfire? Food and music?" Aura and Tamara glanced at each other, shrugging. "Sounds good."

"Except with one hundred and fifty percent less Xander embarrassment," Xander said.

"You _wish_, Xander," Cordelia said, laughing. "I'm in. Let's plan it."

**...**

_**Thursday September 10, 1998; Sunnydale High School library, early afternoon.**_

The steady thrum of rain against the library windows had an almost hypnotic effect after awhile. Faith caught herself almost nodding off over the library table yet again, and brought her head back up, blinking. Yawning, she reached for her soda to try and infuse some more caffeine into her drowsy system.

Eager for some diversion, any diversion, she glanced over to where Giles was standing across the table from her, one foot on a chair seat as he idly turned pages in the book braced in one hand on his upraised knee.

"Whatcha got there, Jeeves?" Faith stretched, arching her back, then rotating her head to pop her neck vertebrae.

"Giles, please, if you must," Giles said, rather absently. He winced at the cracking sound, glancing over to her. "A-a, a rather obscure volume on vampiric history and families that I managed to acquire while I was in Monterey. From a rare book dealer of my acquaintance."

"Cool," Faith said. "So the trip wasn't a total waste, huh?" She grinned as he frowned at her, the grin widening when he broke into a reluctant sounding chuckle.

"No, I suppose not," Giles said, agreeably. "Since I haven't been able to locate any information on this Dacascos fellow in our usual volumes, I rather hoped that some of the more obscure sources might shed some light upon his history."

"Wicked," Faith nodded. "So, is it?"

"Possibly," Giles allowed. "I'll be able to tell you in a short while, perhaps." Nodding again, Faith watched him read. After a few minutes, her fingertips began absently drumming against the table top, unconsciously matching the rhythm of the rain patter. Giles gave her a sharp glance, then sighed heavily, shaking his head. Faith gave him a guilty look, stopped drumming, and pulled the other volume he'd discarded over to her to start browsing through.

"Huh," she said after opening it and scanning the title pages and table of contents. "Vampiric influences upon the mytho, mythop... "

"Mythopoetic," Giles supplied, turning another page.

"Right." Faith scowled, "Mythopoetic structures of the Malaysian sub-regions? Jeeze." Shaking her head, she paged past the table of contents to the text. "That's not _obscure_, Giles - that's outright muddy."

"Fascinating volume, actually. Albeit a bit dry," Giles noted, nodding.

Faith grinned up at him, her brow furrowing as she turned back to the text. After a few more minutes, she glanced at the windows. "Not gonna be any patrolling tonight if this keeps up," she remarked.

"Quite," Giles said. Reaching up to pull his glasses down slightly, he frowned at her over the tops of them. "It's fortunate that I've had ample experience in forging on with research _despite_ Slayer distractions during my tenure as Buffy's Watcher," he stated. "Else I might be quite put out about now."

"Yup. Good thing," Faith said, equably. The corners of her lips curled slightly as she turned another page, peeking up at him from under her lashes.

Shaking his head, Giles laughed softly and turned back to his reading.

"Figure if that's the case, after training, we can blow off patrol and head to the Bronze, then call it a night," Faith added.

"Well," turning another page, Giles said, "While the weather won't necessarily stop demonic activity, it _will_ keep the bulk of their victims off the streets. As long as we do get in a full afternoon and evening's training."

"Yup. Wanna get in all we can before Cordy starts cheerleader practice again in another week or so."

"Of course, you _could_ patrol regardless of the weather," Giles remarked. "A Slayer _must_ be prepared to undergo some discomfort in the performance of her Sacred Duties, after all."

Faith's eyes widened slightly. "Ah, no. Already had to walk home in the drizzle wearing a bright red Hello Cthulu sweatshirt _once_. That's enough humiliation to last me the rest of the _year_, thanks."

Opening his mouth, Giles closed it after a moment, looking bemused. Deciding he really _didn't_ want to know, he let the comment pass. "Ah, here we go," he remarked a few minutes later. Closing the book with his finger marking his place, he stared into the stacks for a few moments, marshaling his thoughts.

"While it doesn't denote him by name initially," Giles began, "In the chapter on 'Noted Vampires of the Pacific Rim', it seems there was a fellow turned in the vicinity of the end of the Pacific War in the Philippines who might possibly meet the description of our new Master Vampire."

"Really? Cool," Faith closed her own book, leaning back in her chair to study Giles.

Nodding he continued. "Either at the end of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, or just following the end of World War II - the accounts aren't quite clear on the timing. It describes the newly appearing vampire as being of mixed Filipino ancestry and rather... industrious."

"Industrious?" Faith's eyebrows lifted.

"Yes, rather. H-he seems to have been heavily involved in the black markets in the post-war Philippines, then cropping up again in a similar occupation in Hong Kong before going underground to surface again later in Borneo, then San Francisco later under the name of Dacascos. In Malaysia, it seems that he was rather deeply involved in several of the various Cargo Cult sects there."

"Uh... Cargo Cult?"

"A-ah... a rather peculiar establishment in Malaysia. It seems that during the war, the natives there became convinced that the relative wealth that Europeans had was not due to technology and manufacturing, but more to the fact that the British and Americans had managed to divert wealth from the Gods - cargo, as it were - that was initially intended for the natives." At Faith's nod, Giles continued, "So, the various shamans and err, Cargo Cult magicians set up elaborate rituals and, err, scams as it were to divert the cargo back to its rightful owners. Some of them were quite elaborate and ingenuous: mock ups of docks and wharves, airfields, and fake factories and warehouses - all of them oriented on the principles of sympathetic magics."

"Hah." Faith grinned. "So this guy who might be Dacascos took over some of the cults?"

"Yes. And apparently amassed quite a fortune doing so: several millions of pounds that had been intended for the Malaysian rebuilding efforts and investments rather disappeared into this vampire's organization," Giles chuckled. "Appalling, yet rather inventive of him."

"Huh. Ok, so, this guy dangerous, or mostly a con?" Faith's brow creased as she tried fitting the information in around what they'd gathered about the Hellmouth's new vampire lord. There was a slight lessening in the drumming of the rain as it slacked off to a heavy drizzle.

"Well, he seems to have primarily oriented himself to accumulating wealth rather than committing atrocities," Giles stated, removing his glasses. "However, that does _not_ mean that he hasn't been responsible for quite a death toll as the result of feeding activities."

"Right," Faith nodded. "Any Slayers ever meet up with him?"

"Ah, to the best of my knowledge, he's never been _directly_ responsible for the death of a Slayer," Giles said. "However, the same can't be said for his associates. According to this... one of his known lieutenants is a-a vampire going possibly by the name of Benjamin or Benedict Lohse, a Germanic vampire approximately ninety some years of age. Lohse has killed at least one Slayer, and may have also slain several Potentials in particularly gruesome fashions."

Faith scowled, "And there I was starting to like Dacascos' style and all."

"Quite," Giles nodded. "he also seems to be associated with another vampire, a Japanese former soldier who apparently goes by 'Ice' - or the Japanese equivalent. For a vampire of some mere forty to fifty years, Ice may actually be more dangerous than even William the Bloody: he's rumoured to be responsible for the death of at least three Slayers within a period of twenty years. All of them killed by the sword: according to what I recall of the Watcher Chronicles from the period, Ice seems to favor the katana and be rather quite the swordsman."

"Huh." Whatever Faith had been about to respond with was cut off by the main doors of the library opening. A jokingly sniping at each other Xander and Cordelia entered, followed by a bemused looking Oz and a glum Willow.

"Hey, guys," Faith called out, glancing at the library clock. "Thought you'd have class?"

"Hey," Oz said. "Canceled." Quirking a wry smile at Xander and Cordy, he added, "We're all very sad."

"Hey, Buster," Willow swatted him on the shoulder. "_Some_ of us are."

"Oh please," Cordelia said, laughing. "Computer lab got trashed, so they canceled class. Had these techie guys in coveralls in there fixing things and leering at all of us."

"Not all of us," Xander protested. "Just you, Miss Hooker Wear."

Snorting, Cordelia rolled her eyes, "Don't look so disappointed, Dweeb. I'm sure at least _one_ of them was checking you out."

"Hey!" Still bickering, the group slid into chairs around Faith and Giles' table.

"A-ah, the computer lab was, err, trashed as you put it?" Giles picked his glasses up from the table, replacing them on his nose.

"Oh yeah," Willow's eyes widened. "Monitor smashed up, papers and garbage everywhere, a-a-and something fried the network cabling and network server somehow."

"They _think_ it was vandals," Cordelia said. "Broke in last night and were playing with things during the storm, something like?"

"What Mr. Freisling said," Oz agreed.

"Ah. That would explain why that infernal device kept giving me a-a 'connection interrupted or not available' message this morning," Giles remarked.

"That would do it," Willow said, nodding. "They're replacing the server now."

"'K, so the important thing is, you guys have no class," Faith said, grinning wickedly. Willow stuck her tongue out at her.

"I had no class before,'" Xander said. "But now I have free period _too_." Cordelia closed her mouth, glaring at him and pouting. He smirked back at her.

"So, bookage," Oz observed. Lifting an eyebrow, he asked, "What's the what?"

"Ah. Yes," Giles pushed his glasses up a bit, glancing around the table. "Faith and I were attempting to research Dacascos, with possibly some slight success." He proceeded to fill the others in on what his reading had uncovered, with Faith adding occasional observations or snarky remarks.

"So... " Cordelia frowned. "This guy's like, mostly spent fifty years just making money and building investments and influence? That doesn't sound so bad for a vamp." She cocked her head slightly, her eyes distant, "I'll bet he has a _fantastic_ wardrobe."

Everyone stared at her and she spread her hands, huffing. "What? That's actually kind of a _smart_ thing to do with your immortality. I'm just sayin', is all."

"Ah yes," Xander nodded. "If only more blood sucking fiends would see the wisdom of conspicuous consumption, the Hellmouth would be a _much_ better place." He ducked Cordelia's well aimed swat at the back of his head, grinning.

"Well, once you get past that whole psychotic hopped up customers thing he's got going," Faith put in. Cordelia sobered a bit as the others nodded.

"Huh. So, real master vamp rather than wanna-be," Oz stated.

Frowning, Giles looked at the currently violet haired musician. "Oh?"

Oz shrugged. "Got two followers as old or older than he is, and both of them more dangerous. Vamp's got to have something on the ball there."

"Hmm. That's actually very astute," Giles remarked. Faith nodded, her expression troubled.

"Not only that, we have a disturbing image of what Cordy would be like as a vampire, too," Xander quipped.

"Yes," Cordelia grinned. "_Very_ expensively dressed and with my own chain of boutiques and designer labels." There was a rumble of thunder and the rain resumed pounding heavily against the windows.

"Ok... I'm gonna guess that patrol's a no-go," Willow ventured, her eyes widening.

"Yup. Training, diner, Bronze," Faith said. "Jeeves already gave his blessing."

"A blessing that shall almost _certainly_ be rescinded if you do not forebear from calling me 'Jeeves'," Giles commented.

"Alfred?" Faith gave him an innocent smile.

**...**

_**Thursday September 10, 1998; the Bronze, night.**_

"Ugh. I'm thinking of building an Ark," Xander said, shaking water off of his bomber jacket before draping it over the back of a chair.

Oz nodded. "Let me know if you figure out what a cubit is."

"Umm, could be worse. Could be raining," Willow said. Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged.

"Just remember, it's _Fronk_ensteen," Xander remarked, a half grin forming on his lips as Willow snickered.

"What_ever_," Cordelia groaned, slumping into the booth as Xander slid in beside her, Faith sliding in after him. "I'm almost ready for this to stop so we can go beat up on vamps again." Narrowing her eyes at Faith, she added, "Be a change from having Shanna the She-Sadist whop us with heavy sticks."

"Aww. I only beat you because I love you, C," Faith snickered, blowing her a kiss.

"Ugh." Willow rubbed her bicep, scowling. "It's not the pain that bothers me. Ok, it is the pain that bothers me. Never mind." She grinned as Faith laughed, tossing her head back.

"I'm surviving by looking to the eventual payoff," Oz said. At everyone's curious stares, he shrugged slightly, lifting an eyebrow. "Getting to beat up on Faith eventually."

"Never happen, Wolfie," Faith told him with a smirk.

"Man can dream," Oz remarked. Glancing around the bar, he said, "Busy tonight."

"Everyone's trying not to drown."

"Danger," Xander stated. "Scott Hope alert - cease all Slaying topics... now." Smiling, they all turned guileless expressions on the other senior as he wandered over.

"Can I join?" Scott asked, pulling a chair over next to Faith.

"Sure," Faith allowed. Showing her best dimpled smile, she added, "You're just in time to head to the bar and grab me something to drink."

"Ah. So it's going to be _that_ sort of relationship," Scott joked. "Sure... what?" Faith thought for a minute and gave him her order.

"I'll head over with," Oz said, looking to Willow for her drink suggestion. "Beats waiting for a waitress to make rounds." Xander nodded, bumping Faith with his shoulder and sliding out when she stood up.

"Queen C's usual?" He asked. Cordelia beamed at him, nodding. The trio headed through the crowd along the edge of the dance floor in the general direction of the bar. Cordelia and Willow slumped tiredly, yawning. Faith grinned at them, shaking her head.

"Huh," she said, after a moment. "No vamps so far. Guess they're waiting out the floods, too."

"Good." Cordelia stated. "Vamps bad. Movement bad." Giving Faith a speculative look, she arched an eyebrow, "So, Scott get the guided tour yet? Spill."

Faith stared at her, then shook her head laughing. "There's this new thing I'm trying. Called 'waiting'."

"Oh, wow," Willow's eyes widened comically. "Think it might catch on?"

"Never know, Red," Faith said. "You just never know." The guys came back with the drinks, setting them down on the table.

"Ok, and we're off again," Xander said. "Nature calls - time to powder our noses."

"We thought we'd see if we can figure out this going in herds thing you girls have," Scott added. Oz shrugged, and they disappeared into the crowd again.

"Well, that's the last we'll see of them for awhile," Cordelia said. "Lines have to be _miles_ long." Picking up her drink, she took a sip of it as Faith nodded agreement.

Aura and Tamara wandered in out of the crowd, pulling up chairs. "Hey. We're here at last to raise the cool factor." Willow frowned as they sat down, but didn't say anything.

"What, no dates?" Cordelia raised an eyebrow.

"Oh," Tamara waved vaguely towards the dance floor. "They found someone _else_ they'd rather dance with. No big."

"Really?" Willow turned in her seat to look out over the floor. "Hey... isn't that... "

"Huh. The guy from St. Michael's I snagged awhile back?" Faith frowned slightly, "Think so." She shrugged, looking unconcerned.

"That skank," Willow said. "Uh, in the interests of loyalty and gal pal solidarity," she added, grinning. Faith laughed.

"Now now, Red. Just because she's got," Faith surveyed the girl on the floor and her pack of surrounding males, "A killer bod, a kinda non-existent clubbing outfit, and the Cordettes boytoys there, doesn't mean she's a _skank_."

"No, just lots of pheromones, boobs out to here, and not enough clothing," Cordelia said, snickering. The five girls fell into cheerfully dissecting what did or did not make for a 'skank' and whether the dark haired dancer qualified.

"Umm... " Aura cocked her head, surveying the dance floor. "Don't look now, but I think she's also acquired Xander and Scott."

"And Oz," Tamara noted, sipping her drink. "And Dwayne... "

"That _skank_!" Cordelia and Faith said, both standing up along with Willow. The three of them headed determinedly out towards the dance floor, people either seeing their expressions and moving aside hurriedly, or being bumped out of the way by a scowling Faith.

"Guess she qualifies," Aura stated.

"Settles _that_, huh?" Tamara leaned back in her chair to watch the show, grinning.

Marching up to their respective boyfriends - or date, in Faith's case - the three girls pushed into the crowd surrounding the undulating beauty and her fan club.

"Hey! Dweeb," Cordelia grabbed Xander by the arm, spinning him around. Blinking, Xander looking down at her a bit dazedly. "Dancing with _Faith's_ one thing. _Not_ every girl in Sunnydale," she said, hooking her arm through his.

Faith snagged Scott by the shoulder, pulling him away as Cordelia and Willow drew a slightly protesting Xander and Oz back to the table. Looking the - extremely hot looking, now that she noticed - brunette up and down, she said, "Mind if I cut in?"

The other girl glanced at her and shrugged, smiling. "Not at all," she said. Gesturing at the group around her, she added, "Plenty to go around."

"Thanks much," Faith's eyes narrowed and she pulled Scott over to one side. "Hey, stud," she cocked her head, "Don't mind gettin' dumped, but five minutes after you came over? _Low_ class, guy."

"Uh... " Scott shook his head, his eyes un-glazing a bit. "No, really. Wasn't like that."

"Riiigghhhtttt," Faith drawled. Leaving him standing there, she spun on her heel and headed back to the table, Scott trailing along behind her after a moment. Sliding back into the booth, she thumped Xander on the shoulder. "Uncool, Xan," she told him.

"Hey! It, uh... I dunno. It was like something just drew me in, honest," Xander protested. Aura glanced out at the dance floor, and snickered, shaking her head. Xander glared at her.

"Gee, I wonder what?" Cordelia rolled her eyes. "You have _much_ groveling ahead of you, Geek-boy." Narrowing her eyes as Xander turned to her, she added in a deceptively sweet tone, "Start early. Beat the rush."

Xander closed his mouth, gulping audibly. "Uh, yes dear. I have _no_ idea what came over me."

Faith grinned, then glanced up at Scott standing uncertainly next to his chair. "Oh, siddown," she said, pushing the chair with her foot. "I'm not _that_ pissed, I guess." Scott smiled hesitantly, taking his seat and pulling his drink over to himself.

"Huh." Willow cocked her head, catching Faith's eye. Faith gave her a curious look. "Uh... think it could be something... " Willow made a vague gesture, then mouthed 'hellmouthy?' at her friend.

Faith cocked her head, her gaze going distant as she ran her impressions back through her mind's eye. She hadn't felt anything on her slayer sense, not really. No vamp tingle or demon crawl down her spine. Just a sense of heat and sensuality that was almost visible radiating off of the other girl. She shook her head after a minute, getting a scowl from Willow.

Looking back at the dance floor, she saw the dark haired girl heading towards the exit, trailing a pair of beefy looking guys with her, with a cluster of others staring after them in obvious disappointment. "Nah. Just hormones," Faith said, smirking.

"I'm having those removed," Oz remarked.

"Good plan," Cordelia stated.


	9. Chapter 8: Missing the Clue Faerie

**Chapter 8: Missing the Clue Faerie -**

_**Friday September 11, 1998; Sunnydale High School library, early afternoon.**_

Rupert Giles looked up from his reading with a frown as the 'Scooby Gang' trouped into the library almost en-masse. "Ah... good afternoon," he said, glancing at the wall clock. "2:15pm? Shouldn't all of you be in classes still?"

"Friday, G-man," Xander said. "As in: first two Fridays of the school year - we have early dismissal until after the 25th."

"And then they send us back to the education mines full time," Cordelia stated. She frowned, glancing around the library, "Where's Faith? We were supposed to meet here - she drafted me for some sort of shopping expedition this afternoon."

Willow blushed, then giggled, giving Giles a conspiratorial wink. He returned a slightly puzzled look at her and she shrugged, making a lip zipping motion behind Cordelia's back.

"Oh, the hardship," Xander remarked. "We _know_ how you resent being dragged kicking and screaming into a mall against your will."

"It's the secrecy that bugs me," Cordelia said. "And _you're_ still on _probation_, Dorkus." Xander grinned, looking sheepish.

Oz returned Giles' inquisitive look with a 'haven't a clue' gesture. "So, what're you reading?" He asked, standing over the table and craning his head to look at Giles' paper from upside down.

"Oh, a-ah, there seem to have been a couple of mysterious deaths in Sunnydale late last night," Giles said, turning the paper around so the teens could see it.

"Well, _that_ just never happens," Xander said, leaning over with Cordelia to look it over.

"The deaths of a couple of geezers are 'mysterious' now?" Cordelia's eyebrows went up. "Those guys have to be at _least_ ninety, jeeze."

"Ah. Turn it over to the continuation," Giles said, ignoring the 'geezer' comment. Willow flipped the page over, frowning slightly as she continued reading.

"Whoa," Oz said. "Don't we know that guy, kind of?"

"Yeah... " Cordelia said, a bit dubiously. "Isn't he that St. Michael's guy Faith took home that one time?"

"Uh huh," Willow said, her eyes growing wide. "A-an-and _here_ it says that both _teenagers_ were identified from their dental records, conclusively." She looked up, "One Roger Martinson age eighteen, and t-the other guy age seventeen."

"Quite," Giles said, nodding. "Rather fascinating, actually." All of them gave him weird looks that slid off of the oblivious librarian.

"Dwayne," Cordelia said, putting her fingertip on the 'before' picture. She sighed heavily, "There goes the basketball team for this year."

"And to _think_ they don't look a day over ninety-three, either of them." Xander remarked, rubbing the knuckles of one hand and flexing it. Giles gave him a sharp look, frowning as he noticed the hand flexing. Xander shrugged, working his shoulders. "Woke up sore all over today," he admitted. "Guess I'm still not used to this training thing."

Oz nodded, "Me too."

"Ah," Giles nodded. "Yes, you have been putting yourselves through unaccustomed exertions recently. It's bound to cause some initial discomfort."

"Tell _me_," Cordelia said, working her own shoulders. Xander gave her a sympathetic look and started massaging her neck and shoulders with his fingers, breaking into a half grin when she closed her eyes murmuring appreciation. "I thought _cheerleader_ training was rough when I started, jeeze," she complained.

"Yes, well," Giles said, "You will get used to it over time, believe me."

"Hey!" Faith's voice cut across the library as she pushed in through the main doors, shaking water out of her hair. "Ah, there you guys are." Stalking across to the table, she threw herself into a chair, arms crossed. "Any of you guys seen that Jonathan kid anywhere?"

"Ah, why hello Faith," Giles shook his head slightly. Looking up, she gave him a belated grin.

"Hey, Giles."

"He didn't come in today, I don't think," Willow said. She frowned, "Now that I think about it, he didn't come in yesterday either."

"Haven't seen him either," Xander said, shrugging. "What'd you need the Jonathan for?"

"Didn't _need_ him, exactly," Faith scowled. "Just wanted to ask him about something." She shook her head, not wanting to go into it. While she hoped the kid's absence didn't have anything to do with his Jack issues, she _wasn't_ his full time bodyguard. "Never mind," she said. "What's up?"

"We're wondering why these two teenagers died of old age," Willow said, tapping the paper. Faith stood, leaning over the table to look.

"Whoa, freaky," she said.

"That was our opinion," Xander stated. "Only with more words."

Flashing him a grin, Faith continued looking over the article. "Huh. Isn't that... ?" Several of the others nodded and she scowled. "Ok, so some time after he and the other guy left with the babe-ette, some demon sucked all the youth out of 'em?"

Everyone else looked at her, and Cordelia smacked herself in the forehead, "Oh - that's right. They _were_ the two that left with miss slut-bomb!" Willow nodded slowly, chewing at her bottom lip.

"Err, ah, 'babe-ette'?" Giles inquired, his eyebrows going up. He removed his glasses, taking out a kerchief to begin polishing them.

"Yeah," Faith nodded. She made a hourglass shape with her hands, very exaggerated at the top end. "Half dressed bimbo at the Bronze that had all of the males here drooling after her," she added, favoring Xander and Oz with a malicious smile.

"Possibly a demoness of some sort?" Giles interested expression sharpened at that.

Faith slid onto the table edge, sitting half on it with her arms folded, scowling. "Naw. Kinda wish, then Cordy could slay her," she said. The cheerleader grinned. "No vamp feel on my slayer sense. No demon feel either. I checked."

"Ah. Well, I had rather hoped there was a simple and straight forward explanation. A pity," Giles said, sighing. "And please do not sit on the table."

"Right," Faith said, agreeably. Sliding off the edge of the table, she sprawled bonelessly back into her chair. Glancing at the other two girls, she said, "Mall?"

"Sure, why not," Cordelia said, missing the wink Faith gave Willow. "It'll keep us out of the drizzle."

"Group mall trip?" Oz asked, lifting his eyebrows.

"Naw," Faith shook her head. "Girl's day out." Glancing at Giles, she added, "We'll meet you guys over at the shop after for training, and whatever research still needs doing?"

"Hmm?" Glancing up, Giles nodded in an abstracted fashion. "Oh. Quite. Meanwhile, I'll start going through books to see if I can find an, err, 'youth sucking demon' that might be responsible."

**...**

_**Friday September 11, 1998; Sunnydale Ridgecrest Mall, afternoon.**_

"Ok, so let me get this straight," Cordelia said, tapping her chin with a finger nail. "I've been roped in to help do a secret Willow make-over with you?"

"Yup," Faith nodded, giving her a guileless look. Willow shrank in on herself a bit as Cordelia cocked her head, giving the red head a critical once over. Judging by her expression, Willow obviously expected a scathing remark or wisecrack.

"And it was a big secret so we could surprise everyone," Cordelia remarked, continuing her critical examination. Willow shrank a bit farther.

"A-yup." Faith nodded, sticking her hands in her back pockets and smirking at the cheerleader.

"Wow." Cordelia broke out into her dazzling thousand watt grin, nodding enthusiastically. "About damn' time, jeeze." Hooking her arm through Willow's, she headed off down the mall corridor, sweeping the red head along with her. Faith trailed along after, snickering under her breath.

"B-bu-but... you're not mad?" Willow stammered. "You don't mind?"

"Mad? Why would I mind?" Stopping, Cordelia gave Willow a slightly boggled look. "I _love_ it when people have the good sense to ask me fashion advice."

"Now now, Queenie," Faith cautioned. "Remember - we're on a budget kind of."

"Oh, please. I'm the Shopping Slayer," Cordelia rolled her eyes, setting off again. "Like _**I**_ can't find a stylish bargain from three hundred yards upwind?" She shook her head, "Jeeze, Will - if you'd done this before Junior High, I could have saved you _years_ of abuse."

"But but," Willow's eyes grew wide. "I like my styles."

"Sure you do," Cordelia patted Willow's arm comfortingly. "And you'll like _these_ even more when you see how you look in them."

"And just wait 'til Oz sees 'em," Faith added, waggling her eyebrows. "He'll never drool on another bimbo again." Her eyes reaching near anime proportions, Willow threw Faith an 'I'm _so_ going to get you' glare that bounced completely off of the other girl.

"I'm thinking you're a Spring," Cordelia was saying. Stopping, she turned Willow and looked her up and down. "Definitely a Spring. _Maybe_ a Summer." Nodding decisively, she set off again, pulling Willow along in her wake.

"W-what?"

"Colors. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. You're a Spring/Summer," Cordelia stated, striding into one of the second floor boutiques, still firmly holding Willow's arm. "Maybe. We'll figure it out."

Willow threw a despairing look back at Faith as the doors swallowed her, her eyes gone Elfquest elf sized. "Help... ?"

**...**

"I can't wear _this_!"

"Sure you can."

"Look, I'll pay you _everything_ from my shares if you'll look the other way while I run," Willow's voice drifted out through the doors of the dressing room. Leaning against the door, arms folded, Faith grinned to herself. The last hour had probably been kind of a blur for the little red head as she'd been swept into a whirl of stores and commando shopping, Cordy-style.

"Ain't bribe able," Faith remarked, sounding bored, and trying her best to hold in snickers. "And, by the way - " she called back, "There's no way to escape from there unless you can fit in the air duct. I checked."

"I _hate_ you."

Eyes wide, Faith bit the edge of her hand, trying to hold in laughter. Regaining control after a moment, she said, "You're only saying that 'cause it's true." An inarticulate sound came from the dressing room and she doubled over, biting her hand again.

A few minutes later, Willow pulled open the door, crouching slightly as she tried pulling the skirt down a bit farther past her knees, and glaring at Faith. Faith gave her an appreciative looking over, her eyes widening slightly, and grinned.

"C'mon," she said, taking Willow by the upper arm gently and straightening her up. "Let's go see how it looks in the big mirrors." Still grinning, she put a hand over the red head's eyes and started leading her out.

"Doan wanna," Willow mumbled, but she followed Faith's guidance, whether from resignation or sheer numbness Faith wasn't sure.

Outside the dressing room areas, Faith shot Cordelia a wink as she led a protesting Willow over to the floor to ceiling three-way mirrors and positioned her carefully before removing her hand from Willow's eyes.

"I'm _telling_ you no matter _what_ you say, this just isn't... Oh, wow." Her eyes uncovered, Willow blinked at her image in the mirrors.

Cordelia broke off her conversation with one of the sales girls and came over, her expression thoughtful as she surveyed the dumbstruck looking Willow. A full sleeved, high collared silk blouse in a blend halfway between a rust and a wine red, almost exactly matching Willow's hair color topped the ensemble over a fitted skirt just-over-knee-length of a dark, near hunter green. A narrow slit along the left side of the skirt ran part way up the thigh, exposing a tasteful length of leg and giving some freedom of movement for walking. An open brighter green over blouse that exactly matched the shade of Willow's eyes went over the main blouse, with a dark green, narrow vest over that, matching the skirt's color. Dark rose-and-vine patterned pantyhose completed the look. All of it was in materials, cuts, and fabrics far more expensive looking than Willow probably ever would have chosen for herself.

Faith gathered up Willow's hair at the sides, fluffing it out and arranging it over the red head's shoulders. "Oh, wow... " Willow said again.

"Day-um," Faith said, stepping back. "I was shooting for 'racy', but the Queen here managed _elegant_. Nice."

"Told you," Cordelia beamed. "I'm the Fashion Slayer." Reaching over, she pushed up the cuffs of the full sleeve blouse to just under Willow's elbows, letting the bloused sleeves billow over just-so. "There," she said, stepping back and nodding. "Perfect."

Holding a second blouse in a richer wine red up to Willow, she gave it an approving look and stepped back to survey the current effect. "I was only partly right," she admitted after a moment. "Fall, Spring, and Summers. I'd stay with reds, rusts, wines, and various greens if I were you, with neutral colors to accent and highlight."

"This is... " Willow swallowed. "Actually pretty nice." Giving Cordelia an incredulous look, she glanced away when it was met with one of the cheerleader's more genuine smiles.

"Well, Faith has _decent_ taste, but she goes more for the walking centerfold look," Cordelia ignored Faith's sticking out her tongue and smirking. "Which _just_ isn't you. _You're_ more understatement and elegance."

"I like this," Willow said. Her eyes widened slightly, "I can't _afford_ this!" she added desperately.

"What, already spent all of your shares from the err," Faith glanced sidelong at the sales clerks nearby, "Family business?"

"Well, no. Almost none of it, really," Willow admitted. "But but - I was saving up for new computer parts! There's a whole new technology coming in and- "

Faith laughed, tossing her head. "There'll be more. Live a little, Red."

"Oh, _please_." Cordelia said. "Not like this is Nordstroms or anything. I do know _how_ to shop smart. I just don't have to _bother_ most of the time," she said, rolling her eyes slightly.

"Well... " Willow said, biting her lower lip. "Okay," she said, dubiously. A realization struck her and she turned to face the cheerleader, her eyes narrowing. "You're really _good_ at this," she stated, her voice more than a bit surprised.

"Well, of course," Cordelia stated, nodding.

"No no - I mean, _really_ good at this," Willow said, her tone growing excited. "I _did_ pay attention when we were doing all of the grabbing and trying and comparing and and... it's like there's this whole _science_ to colors a-and cuts and fabrics and stuff I never knew about. And you know _all_ of that."

"Well, duh," Cordelia did something neither of the other girls was expecting: blushed furiously. She huffed and turned back to fussing with the other blouses. "It's not _easy_ looking good, you know. You have to _study_."

"Right," Willow nodded energetically. "That's what I mean." Grinning at the discomfited looking cheerleader, she firmed her chin up, adding, "Ok, what's next?"

"Created a monster, C," Faith stated, shaking her head. Willow snickered, shaking her head at the other girl.

"Well, let's see," Cordelia tapped a manicured nail against her chin, looking thoughtful. Obviously back on more comfortable ground, she considered for a few minutes. "We need to meet the guys this evening, so we really don't have time for the full treatment - we'll have to come back later in the week for underthings and what have you." Pausing, she said, "I'm thinking some jeans and slacks, a few more blouses and vests, maybe a dress or so, a jacket or two, and oh - shoes."

"Uh... I don't think I'm ready for heels," Willow said, looking a bit nervously down at Cordelia's feet.

"Please," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Think I'm going to have my hard work ruined by watching you teeter about on _stilts_? Some tasteful flats, and elegant low heeled sandals. And maybe a pair or two of nice, dressy, low cut boots."

"Hair?" Faith suggested. "And makeup?"

"Uh... " Willow started looking alarmed again, but Cordelia cut across her.

"No time to get a stylist appointment today. We'll have to do that later. Besides," she reached out to pull back Willow's backs, looking her over with a practiced eye. "Will's hair is _fine, _really." Pulling back from fussing with Willow's hair, she added, "And I need to show you makeup before we go overboard on that. I have a few subtle ideas that will _really_ bring out the color in your eyes. I'm thinking: restraint, restraint, restraint."

"okay... " Willow was starting to get that overwhelmed look again.

"Man, gonna knock Wolfie's socks off when you show up at school again," Faith said, smirking.

"Eep!" Willow's eyes went huge again. "B-but... what if it turns out he only likes me because of the way I'm dressed?"

"Jeeze," Cordelia rolled her eyes again, and Faith snorted. "Oz liked you just _fine_ when you were Miss Sears, right?" Glaring, Willow frowned slightly, then nodded. "He'll _still_ like you no matter what - the guy's Willow Locked."

"Yeah, Red," Faith said, shaking her head. "Tell you a secret about guys: they just like _girls_. Except for the ones that like other guys, and they don't count. Guys'd like girls if we weren't wearing anything," she smirked, causing Willow to blush furiously. "But every once in awhile, they like nice wrappings on girls. Makes 'em feel all studlike to have a really nice dressed babe on their arm goin' out - brings out the manly in 'em."

"What she said," Cordelia agreed, "Only without the cave girl grunting."

"Bitch," Faith snickered.

"But... " Willow gave Cordelia a slightly bewildered look. "You were always harping on Xander until he gave in and let you err, outfit him? And mean, too!"

"Sigh." Cordelia shook her head, "Will, _don't_ tell Xander this, but I liked him just _fine_ before he gave in and let me and Faith improve his dress sense. Or liked him ok, anyway." She grinned. "Girls like to have a nice dressed guy on our arms, too. It lets us know they cared enough to actually, like, put some effort into it."

"Hmm. I'll think about it, all right?" Willow frowned, then shrugged. "Ok. Let's get this done so I can change back into some workout clothes for our torture session." She started away from the mirrors.

Faith snagged her by the arm, turning her about. "Better hit the changing room before we get to the register, girl. Don't want 'em to think you're boosting that stuff." She grinned, "It'd look bad on your permanent record and shit."

**...**

_**Friday September 11, 1998; E. Chestnut St., Sunnydale, evening.**_

"Hey guys," Faith called out as she pushed in through the door of 'The Shop' as they were starting to refer to it, Willow and Cordelia coming through behind her. Oz and Xander looked up from their work at the back, Xander breaking out into a grin as he saw them.

"Hey, Slaygal and gals," Xander said.

"What's all this?" Cordelia looked over the pile of 2x10's Xander and Oz had been busily sorting through and stacking before they'd entered. Xander in tool belt and a tight t-shirt also drew her attention, and she swallowed visibly.

"Throwing target," Oz stated. Cordelia and Faith both wrenched their attention away from Harris and over to the little guitarist.

"Yeah," Xander gestured to the back wall near the exit door, now covered with a pair of 8' by 4' thick plywood sheets set in side by side. "4x4 and 1" plywood backing, with 2x10's set in a layer over it. For knife and axe throwing practice."

"Cool," Faith nodded, looking impressed. "Nailed on?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Screws. Countersunk," Oz stated.

"Makes it easier to replace boards when they get chewed through. None in the middle so they won't chip blades," Xander explained.

"Wow," Willow nodded. "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah," Xander said, grinning at the praise. "We covered the windows upstairs the same way and set out the composite targets Giles got. For crossbow, bow, and arrow air-rifle practice."

"_Very_ cool," Faith said. "Jeeves around?"

"Upstairs, at the research table," Oz said, dusting off his jeans and coming over to give Willow a kiss. Xander did the same, sliding his arm around Cordelia's waist. Cordelia gave him a sidelong glare for a moment, but relented and leaned in to return the kiss and embrace.

"Yeah," Xander said, after they broke off for air. "Last we saw, he was staring blankly and muttering British sounding curses under his breath and shoving books to the side."

"No go on finding any youth sucking demons, huh?" Cordelia made a face as Xander and Oz shook their heads.

"Huh." Faith leaned against a saw horse, crossing her arms under her breasts. "And, _rats_." Scowling slightly, she glanced toward the stairs, then back at the group. "Well, quit raining, so... what say we switch off to bow and crossbows today, then pair off and do katas for awhile? Then we can help G with the books, do a patrol, and still manage to hit the Bronze before we call it quits." She grinned, "Maybe we can catch whatever it is out there."

"Sounds good," Oz allowed, Willow and Cordelia nodding their agreement.

"Works," Xander said, adopting Faith's habitual phrase. "Uh... " he frowned. "Pair up for katas? I thought those were things you did solo?"

"Well," Faith uncrossed her arms, pushing her hair back with both hands. "Yeah, but... my teacher always told us that doing forms without an opponent was kinda like learning to swim on dry land. He always had us pair up - said that real combat's always about changing situations, not shadow boxing." She paused, adding, "Di- my Watcher had me learn the solo forms and shit too."

"Ah." Xander's expression focused inwards briefly, then cleared. He cocked his head, "Jeet Kune Do?"

"Think that's where he stole it from, yeah," Faith nodded, a slow grin spreading across her lips. "Figure I'm gonna do this, we go with what works."


	10. Chapter 9: Trails of Breadcrumbs

**Chapter 9: ****Trails of Breadcrumbs -**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Sunnydale High School library, late morning.**_

Faith glanced up from her copy of Barlowe's as the main library doors opened, nodding to Cordelia as the cheerleader swept in. She closed the book, yawning - not really having been doing more than browsing through the color illustrations and seeing if anything caught her eye while Giles researched. Quirking a half smile, she raised an eyebrow as Cordelia flopped into a chair, sighing heavily.

"Mornin', C. Thought you'd be country clubbing it with the 'rents this morning?"

Cordelia scowled at her, sighing again. "They had to leave for Washington abruptly, last night. Some 'big meeting' they couldn't get out of," she said. "So, here I am."

"Well, while I _am_ sorry that your plans fell through," Giles said, "I _can't_ apologize for being glad to have another pair of eyes here."

"Thanks," she said, sourly. Reaching for a book, Cordelia added, "And I _so_ thought we'd be back to only showing up at school on _school days_, now that the year started." Giles gave her a sympathetic look, hiding a smile.

Oz and Willow came in shortly after, followed a brief while later by Xander carrying a stack of donut boxes. Exchanging hellos, everyone settled in around the research table, reaching for pastries.

"So, Giles, anything new on the demony front?" Xander asked.

"Hmm. Actually, yes," Giles stated. Setting aside his jelly donut for a moment, he folded the morning paper back upon itself and turned it around to slide across to the others. "Two more similar victims. Err, college children, I gather."

Scowling, Xander leaned over the paper, reading the story. Willow, Oz, and Cordy leaned in around him to take a look as well.

"Crestwood college," Xander remarked. "Now there's a place chock full of good memories." Cordelia nodded, shivering slightly.

"And UC Sunnydale," Willow added. "Oh look - 'Monsters not involved, school officials say'." She snickered, shaking her head sadly.

"Yup. Gotta love this town," Xander said. "Or flee in terror, which would really be a lot smarter."

"Bigfoot sightings. And Elvis," Oz said. Everyone looked at him and his eyebrows went up. "Have to wonder how many other weird things get labeled other stuff in the news so they won't have to ask questions." Everyone nodded.

"Hey now," Faith protested, grinning. "Everyone knows Elvis was vamped. Has a lair in Nashville out by the Grand Ole Opry."

"Another road slayer story?" Cordelia asked, laughing.

"Naw. But I heard rumors." Faith smirked.

"Be that as it may," Giles interjected, "We clearly no longer have an isolated phenomenon on our hands." Faith's smirk went away and she nodded soberly. Giles' eyes glinted slightly, "Besides, everyone _knows_ that Elvis was made into a zombie in 1978 and is currently touring as a self imitator. With Jim Morrison."

Spluttering, Faith stared at him, then burst out laughing, shaking her head. After a moment, the others joined in. "Jest a hunka hunka squirming brains," Xander quipped, causing sick faces and pained guffaws.

"I thought he was living in a rest home in Texas, with JFK," Oz remarked, setting off another round of laughter.

"Ok," Cordelia said, wiping her eyes. "That's just _so_ wrong." Frowning slightly, she said, "Hey - turn that back to the front page for a minute? I thought I saw something earlier." With a shrug and a puzzled look, Willow flipped back to page one for her.

"Hmmm. Yes, I saw that," Giles said. "A small riot at the err, Fish Tank earlier last night."

"No mentions of bar-be-que forks or wild animal attacks," Cordelia said. "So... not vamps?"

"Probably not," Giles said, shaking his head. "And it doesn't seem to be related to our other incidents from anything that I could discern."

"Ok." Oz pursed his lips, looking thoughtful. "Willow and I could go ask around at UCS. Dingoes have played there - I know a few people."

Nodding agreement, Willow added, "I can come back after and look around on the police and morgue's 'net to see if there were any details that didn't make the papers, too."

Faith glanced up at her curiously. "They get the computers fixed here?"

"Oh yeah," Willow stated. "New server, and they were supposed to be finished replacing the cables by Friday afternoon." She took on an abstracted look for a minute, adding, "Kind of a weird blowout, I heard one of the techs say. Like the surge ran along the network cabling through the main server, but there's _supposed_ to be safeguards keeping that from happening." Faith frowned slightly, then shook her head, shrugging.

"Welcome to school on the Hellmouth, where the weird is normal," Xander said. "Guess Cordy and I could go ask around at Crestwood before we go eat lunch," he added, making a face. "If you want?" he glanced at his girlfriend.

"Well... sure, I guess." She snickered, making a face of her own, "I'll make sure the frat boys don't get you if you keep _me_ away from snake monsters."

"Deal." Xander looked over to Faith. "Wanna come with?"

"Naw." Faith scowled. She stood up, cracking her knuckles. "Think I'll go hit Willy's and see if he's heard anything about new demons in town. He still owes us a few."

Giles nodded at them, reaching for another jelly donut. "Excellent. And I'll, err... hit the books some more, I suppose."

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Willy's Alibi Room, early afternoon.**_

A slight pout of disappointment crossed Faith's lips as she surveyed the nearly empty Alibi Room. Too early for vamps, and what few demons were there were distinctly of the more inoffensive species. Willy glanced up from the bar as she stepped all the way in, crossbow propped on her hip. He gave her a nervous look, picking up a glass to polish it.

That set her teeth on edge right away: Willy really hadn't been _too_ nervous of her since they'd come to an arrangement following the gangster demon incident. Slimy and ingratiating, yeah. _That_ was kind of ingrained into his personality.

"Hey, Slayer," Willy's head bobbed as she came over to the bar. Giving her his best ingratiating smile, he set the glass down again, leaning on the bar top.

"Willy." Faith cocked her head slightly, studying him as she set the crossbow down, dropping her gear bag by her feet. "You look nervous."

"Me? Who me? No, not me," Willy shook his head, his eyes widening.

"Right," Faith drawled. "I believe this, really."

Sighing, Willy shrugged, "Ok, I am a bit spooked. A couple of vamps been coming in the past few nights poking around."

"Ok?" With studied casualness, Faith leaned against the bar, raising her eyebrows. "Asking about me?"

"Naw. That I'd mention right away," Willy said. At Faith's snort, he shook his head earnestly. "Really! We got a deal, right?"

"Right." Faith nodded seriously. "So, what then?"

"Couple of goons - looking for someone hunting other vamps lately. Think they're some of Dascascos' guys."

"Huh." Faith studied him long enough for Willy to start to sweat before shrugging. "Describe 'em?"

"Uh... big guy. _Real_ big. Bald head, Fu-manchu, lots of leather and studs. Other guy's a little oriental... never seen him before," Willy said. "Made threats, dusted a couple of regulars, broke some shit and went on."

"Heh. What'd you give 'em?" Faith glanced away, watching him out of the corners of her eyes.

Willy gave her an incredulous look. "Whatever they asked for. I'm not stupid - can't make no money dieing." Shrugging he added, "Which wasn't much. I can't think of _anyone_ that comes here who's crazy enough to hunt Dacascos' people." He smirked, apparently regaining a bit of his comfort levels. "Present company excepted, natch," he added.

Nodding, Faith reflected that she could, probably, but didn't say anything. Instead, she studied Willy long enough for him to start squirming under her gaze before deciding he was probably being straight with her. She nodded.

"Ok," she said, slowly. "Got something else anyway. Demon or something that's going around sucking the life out of young guys - turning them into old people before they croak. Anything?"

"Huh." Willy's eyes went distant for a few minutes, then he shook his head. "Not really. Not a demon though, is what I hear."

"Oh? Really," Faith drawled.

"Hey, regulars gossip, I listen," Willy said, spreading his hands. He smirked, "If there's one thing demons know, it's other demons, and _they're_ all wondering about whatever's new here, right?" He shrugged, "So I'm thinking: probably not a demon. And definitely not a vamp."

"Huh. So... what would do that that's _not_ a demon... ?" Faith mused, half out loud. Wily gave her a blank look, spreading his hands apart. She made an impatient gesture. "Yeah yeah. Thinking out loud."

"Right, Slayer," Willy's head bobbed and he gave a nervous grin. "Hey – I don't know what half the things that come in _here_ are most the time. I just serve 'em and hope 'bartender' ain't their poison of choice, y'know? Ain't a demon or vamp, I gots no clue."

Nodding, Faith studied him for a few minutes, her eyes distant. "Hear anything about that riot at the Fish Tank?"

"Oh yeah!" Willy nodded so energetically she thought his head might fall off. He sounded glad to finally have something to give her. "Bunch of bikers and truckers got into a huge brawl over some babe – real knock down drag out kinda thing." He gestured at the shelves behind the bar where there was a scanner sitting on one shelf below the mirror, adding, "Half the freaking cops in Sunnyhell and most of the Sheriff's deputies got called in to chill things out before it was over. Every regular in the place was crowded around here listening and making bets on who was gonna get hauled out on a stretcher next."

"Huh." Cocking her head slightly, Faith stared at him. "None of that made the paper that I saw."

"The _Sunnydale_ Press?" Willy gave her an incredulous look. "Why do you think I keep a scanner, jeeze. Those idiots don't even make it out of the press bar at night to go look up a story, sheesh." He paused, "Uh, not that I can _blame_ 'em in this town or nuthin'... "

"Ok, so, 'babe', huh?" Faith said, ignoring the reporting critique. "Catch a description?"

Willy snorted, rolling his eyes. "Buncha drunks and cops describing a chick. At the 'Tank. Right. She was either blonde, brunette, or maybe a red head with big tits except for maybe she had small tits and was real hot. Or maybe she was someone's girlfriend someone was hitting on." He looked thoughtful for a moment, adding, "No calls saying she was tossing cops around, so probably not a vamp."

"Right," Faith said, thoughtfully. "'K. You hear anything else, I wanna know. Likewise 'bout the other thing. Don't need something weird sucking all the youth out of Sunnydale High on my watch."

"Right, Slayer." Willy gave her a nervous grin, looking hopeful. He opened his mouth to start to say something, and Faith smirked, cutting across him...

"That and the other works off some of what you owe. I'll let you know when we're even up," she stated, her eyes narrowing.

"Right. No problems," Willy said, bobbing his head. He smiled weakly, "Always glad to help."

"I know," Faith smirked. "It's what I like about you, Willy."

"Hah. Yeah," Willy grinned ingratiatingly, ducking his head. "Glad there's something – last Slayer didn't like nuthin' about me."

"Well... at least that's _something_ in her favor, finally," Faith allowed. Willy gave her a wounded look and she smirked. "Y'need to watch getting' all sweaty and shit when I walk in, Willy – makes me wonder if'n you might be thinking about setting me up." Faith's eyes narrowed as Willy's face paled. "That'd just end real bad for one of us, you know?"

Lifting her bag, she slid the crossbow into it after setting the safety in preparation for heading out. Faith decided she _really_ liked the new parallel bow Willow'd found - it was just the right length to fit her gear bag without needing a duffel to carry it around. She decided she'd hit Drayler's and a couple of other demon haunts before heading back, just to show the flag and ask around a bit more. In the interests of being thorough and all.

Maybe she'd even get to beat something up.

"See you around, Willy," Faith called back over her shoulder as she went towards the front door. "Don't forget me."

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Sunnydale High School library, late afternoon.**_

Willow was busily hunting away at the library computer when Faith got back, with Giles and Cordelia sitting at one of the tables nearby talking over a pile of books. All three glanced over to her as she pushed open the main doors.

"Hey," Faith wandered over. Snagging one of the remaining cinnamon rolls out of a donut box, she plopped into a chair across from Giles. "Uh... the guys?"

"Both went over to the Shop to do some work," Cordelia said. Willow nodded from her keyboard, frowning in concentration at her screen.

"Did Willy have anything of interest for you?" Giles inquired.

"Huh." Faith scowled, "Yeah, and no. Says his customers are gossiping about it and wondering what it is, so he thinks it ain't a demon." Shrugging, she added, "I hit Drayler's and Squisher's before coming back here: got about the same from them."

"Ah." Giles pursed his lips, looking thoughtful. "Well, if that should prove to be true, then this would seem to leave me stymied regarding further research avenues," he said, gesturing at the accumulated books. "It would explain why we are making no headway regarding possible demonic explanations, however." Cordelia nodded a bit glumly.

"And all that time wasted on looking through the catalog of ick, too," Cordelia stated, sighing. "In other news, Xander and I didn't find anyone at Crestwood who saw the guy hanging out with anyone or anything unusual before he turned up all ancienty."

"Us either," Willow said from over at the computer. She sighed, "Kind of a big no score on that front. But the dorm he lived at didn't seem like it was really big on the noticing comings and goings, you know?"

Faith nodded, as did Cordelia. "Ok," Faith said after a moment, "Well, Willy said there was some 'broad' involved in starting the riot at the Fish Tank. No real description." She glanced over at Willow, saying, "Said half the cops and a lot of deputies got called in to close the brawl down. Maybe you could dig up something better on that?"

Willow thought for a moment, then nodded. "I was going over to the police files here soon anyway. I can look at that after I take a look at the reports on the other bodies."

"Cool," Faith flashed a grin at the hacker. Frustrated, she drummed her fingers on the table top while staring off into the space past Giles shoulder.

"Hmm." Cordelia and Faith looked at Giles expectantly as he pushed his glasses up slightly farther on his nose. "Umm, it occurs to me to wonder... where were the bodies found? All of them?"

"Well... " Cordelia's expression went thoughtful. "The Crestwood guy was found in his dorm room when his room mate got in, like, late and walked in on the corpse. Don't know about the others. Will?"

"Uh." Without looking up from her screen, Willow's brow furrowed slightly and she said, "Martinson was found at a motel room. Circle-8 out by the air port. Dwayne... in his room. Parents found him when they got in early Friday morning. Late?" She shrugged. "A-and the UCS guy was in a room at the motel near the bus station."

"Huh." Faith's brows drew down.

"Something, Faith?" Giles gave her an inquiring look.

"Just thinking... " Faith said, slowly. "Roger - err, Martinson - was the St. Michael's guy, right? Him and Dwayne were the ones Bimbo led out of the Bronze. And hey, dorm room, air port motel strip, and the bus station motel: all places you'd go with a chick if you wanted to get your 'ugnh' on all private-like."

Giles made an 'ahem' sound and removed his glasses hastily for polishing at Faith's analysis. Cordelia smirked, saying, "Well, you would know, right?" She smiled sweetly.

Faith grinned and shot her the finger. "Up yours, Princess." Cordelia broke out laughing.

"So, ah, err, you are surmising that whatever err, 'drained the youth' out of these young gentlemen, may have done so during the act of, err, intercourse?" Giles flushed slightly as all three girls fixed their attention on him.

"He is kind of cute when he gets flustered," Cordelia remarked, glancing at Faith. Giles flushed slightly deeper. "And, eeww, now I didn't need that mental image."

"You mean do I think they got drained in more ways than one while screwing their brains out, G?" Faith said, giving him an innocent look. Giles broke out into a coughing fit and Willow turned bright red and swiveled back to her computer screen hastily. "Well, yeah, kinda where I was goin' with that," she nodded, smirking.

"Again, eww." Cordelia made a face. "Wouldn't that be like, one of those succubusy demons, Giles?"

"Ah, err," Giles replaced his glasses, shooting a mild glare at Faith. "Yes, possibly. It would certainly fit the profile of certain types of, err, sexually oriented supernatural entities." He glanced curiously at Faith, "You're thinking the young woman at the Bronze may indeed be connected?"

"Huh. Maybe," Faith said, nodding.

"You are quite certain that she did not, however, register on your slayer senses?" Giles asked, frowning slightly.

Faith scowled, "Yeah. Quite." She shook her head, "Don't get me doubting my slay-sense, Giles. We're all screwed if I can't trust it."

"Well, yes, of course. That was not my intention," Giles said with a nod. "It _would_ eliminate a demonic entity such as a succubus, and require us to perforce needs look in other directions."

"Like, a-a witch, maybe?" Willow put in.

"Possibly," Giles remarked. "Some Tantric disciplines could produce effects similar to what we're seeing, if the practitioner were into the err, blacker aspects of those magics."

"Tantric?" Faith and Cordelia asked at almost the same time. They glanced at each other and snickered.

"A-ah, like, uh, sex magic," Willow said, blushing furiously. "Magic done during sex to, uh, harness the, uh, 'energies'."

"Go Will," Faith said, grinning. "Now there's a kind of magic I could get behind." Willow squeaked and buried herself in her computer again.

"_Or_ in front of," Cordelia suggested, and Faith smirked at her.

"Ahem." Giles glared at both of them. "If you are _quite_ finished?" The two girls smoothed their expressions into innocent looks and nodded, wide eyed. "It does leave us the problem of determining if that is the case, and how to locate our, err, practitioner."

"This might help," Willow suggested. "I-it says here that all of the victims showed 'signs of recent sexual intercourse' and - _crap_!" As the rest of the group stared at her, Willow shrugged. "Connection got dropped while I was in mid read? Sorry." Frowning, she turned her attentions to checking and re-establishing her Internet connection.

"So our bimbo _might_ be some sort of sex mage?" Cordelia asked. "Figures. _Xander's_ a horn dog, but we should have guess it was out of character for Oz to go stepping on his tongue like that."

"That's what I thought," Willow muttered. She frowned more deeply. "Huh. Can't get back on line, and all of the system stuff says everything is working properly. Phooey."

"Hrm. Ok," Faith said. "Don't know anything about her, and can't really stake out every bar in town. Even if there ain't like lots of 'em, there's still more than we got bodies."

"And frat parties, and keggers, and... " Cordelia stated, scowling.

"Hmm. Well, there are several of us," Giles said. "While we can't be at every club in town, if we were to split up we could cover a number of them."

"Except that this chick kinda sucks in guys like a magnet, Giles. It's freaky," Faith said, shaking her head. "Means we can't have Xan and Oz doing the looking."

"Right. Older men are nice, but I don't need like a ninety year old Xander," Cordelia said. "That's just way too eeew."

"Okayy... " Willow said, slowly. Everyone looked over to see her staring at the screen with a puzzled expression. "Kinda bizarre."

"'Kinda bizarre' isn't something you wanna hear when sitting over the Hellmouth," Faith remarked. "What's up, Red?" She frowned, "Oh - and remember that what I know about computers you could tattoo on my nipple, so keep it in baby talk, ok?"

"Uh." Willow's eyes crossed briefly and then she shook her head, "Ok. Mental image, bad." Faith grinned and Willow glared at her, then giggled. "Not getting a connection out but everything checks out ok, which is weird right? 'Cause we have an ADSL and if it's off line, I should see a error in System or on the modem resources." That drew blank looks and she made an impatient gesture, "So, never mind. Anyway, so I went into the server and checked, and there's still connections going out, just not from here. Only, there's more connections out than just the really small number of office staff and teachers here on a Saturday would account for."

Willow looked expectantly at the group, and got blank expressions back. She made a frustrated sound and rolled her eyes slowly.

"Wait a minute," Cordelia said slowly after a minute. "So, like, you mean there's people dialing out from the building that aren't, like, the ones who're working on their office or classroom terminals? And _you_ can't, but you _should_ be able to?"

"Right!" Willow beamed at her, looking happy. Cordelia blinked, her face slowly taking on a pleased and surprised look. Faith and Giles looked blankly at each other, shrugging.

"I don't get it," Faith admitted, finally.

"Errgh." Willow ran a hand through her hair in a slightly exasperated gesture. "Someone or something or several someones are running a lot of lines through the server outside only they're more than the five or six lines from people here working. And these are all running out through the school's T1 line from somewhere, not originating through individual terminals."

"Ah. Right," Faith shook her head. "So, can you figure out from where? And does it have anything to do with our problem?"

"Umm. Not sure. Probably not, but it _is_ weird," Willow said. "And maybe... I'm trying to trace back where the extra outgoing connections are originating from now." She bent back to her keyboard and display, chewing on her lower lip with an expression of intense concentration.

The others leaned back in their chairs, giving Willow time to work. Faith reached for another remaining donut while Giles busied himself getting up to go hunt for some of his magical references.

After about fifteen minutes, Willow leaned back again in her computer chair, sighing. "Ok, now _that's_ really - "

At that moment, all of the lights in the room went out as the library's power went off. Glancing through the glass windows on the main doors, it was apparent that lights were out elsewhere in the building also, or at least in the corridor just outside.

"- really weird," Willow finished.


	11. Chapter 10: But we have parts left over

**Chapter 10: ****But we have parts left over -**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Sunnydale High School parking lot, late afternoon.**_

"I'm thinking this kinda kills the computer angle," Faith remarked. She leaned next to Cordelia against the driver's side of the cheerleader's convertible.

"Quite," Giles said, pursing his lips. Raising the stack of books in his hands slightly, he gave a slight smile. "However, this does tend to illustrate one advantage of more prosaic methods of researching," he said.

"Lookin' _way_ too smug there, G," Faith said. "Now let's see you pull up a morgue file on one of those."

Willow snickered, schooling her face into a blank expression when Giles shifted his mild glare from Faith to her.

"Ah... yes." Giles shoulders slumped a touch, and he inclined his head slightly in Willow's direction. "However, they do leave us with some avenues to explore considering we're now bereft of some of our other resources."

"True," Cordelia cut across Faith's smirk and whatever remark she was about to make. "So, Will - what was weird right at the end? I mean, like, _other_ than you killing the power for the entire _building_?"

"Hey! I didn't do it!" Willow protested. "At least, I don't _think_ I did... " Shaking her head, she made a face at Faith and moved on. "Ok, like, right before all the lights went out and the screen went blank, I found this _really_ big file sitting on the school main frame. Or block of files, maybe."

"Okay... " Faith blinked at her slowly.

"Right, so," Willow made a frustrated gesture, "Hey, files on a computer, no big deal, right? Except we're talking a really _huge_ file or block of files. Like major gigabytes. Only hidden like system files usually are, except you can _unhide_ those if you have SysAdmin status which I do of course only this block _wouldn't_ unhide to let me look at it... "

"Breathe, Willow," Cordelia suggested, grinning.

"Right." Willow took a deep breath, grinning back at the cheerleader. "Slowing down now."

"Ahem." Giles gave her a puzzled look. "So is this, err, anomalous block, if I'm understanding you correctly, where your mysterious out, uh, contacts were coming from?"

"Connections," Willow corrected, absently. She scowled, "Dunno. I couldn't trace back from the server, so I went into the mainframe to see if I could get a look at the outgoing logs from _there_, just in case. That's when I noticed this huge block that shouldn't be there - it _wasn't_ there last time I looked. That's about when everything went plotz."

"Plotz?" Faith said, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Uh huh," Willow said, laughing. "It's a technical term, honest!"

"Well," Giles said. He set the stack of books into the back floorboard of his Citroen, straightening up afterwards. "Let's adjourn to the, err, 'Shop' as we call it and continue this exploration, shall we?"

Faith nodded as she watched remaining teachers and office people filing out of the front of the building into the front parking lot. Her stomach rumbled, and she made a face at Willow's giggle.

"By way of a restaurant, first, maybe?" Cordelia suggested with a small grin and a pointed look at Faith's midsection. "We can get some take out for the guys when we leave, maybe."

"Kaylee's?" Faith suggested.

"Very well," Giles agreed. "In the interests of expediency, I'll suggest that it is my treat."

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; E. Chestnut St., Sunnydale, evening.**_

Faith stopped when she felt the impact of the wooden bokken tip strike her back at mid chest level, angling in. Giving the 'break' signal, she grinned, turning to her opponent.

"Just about perfect, Red. Cool stuff," she nodded to the red head. "Way to go."

Giving her a startled look, Willow broke into a wide grin. "You mean I did it right?"

"Yup," Faith returned the grin. "Blocked and turned the lunge with your offhand stick as I came in, side stepped, and struck as I went by. And I was moving at half speed - for me - even."

"Way to go Willster," Xander said as his friend flushed under the unexpected success and praise. Oz brought his hands together a couple of times for his girlfriend, smiling

"One thing," Faith put out a hand, taking the bokken when Willow passed it over. "Turn the forearm so you come in this way, angled like so. That way you won't have to use as much back and shoulder behind the strike, and it's less likely to leave you off balance on the follow through." Willow watched, nodding seriously. "Stick's about an inch or more wide at the tip, but only about a half or so thick - goes between the ribs easier that way."

"Cool," Willow said, nodding.

Still grinning, Faith punched the other girl lightly on the shoulder as she stepped back. "Bone bruises, fastest way to get it," she joked. Willow rubbed her shoulder with an exaggerated wince, but she was still grinning proudly.

"Don't remind me," Cordelia said, rubbing at her shoulder and making a face. Faith smirked, looking completely unapologetic.

"Ok... " Going over to the front room's refrigerator, Faith pulled out a handful of bottled waters. Handing one to Willow as she came back, she tossed and handed the others to the rest of the group, suggesting, "Take a break and go up and brainstorm a bit with the Jeeves? We can switch to bows after."

Upstairs, they sprawled around the research table drinking water and catching their breath. Marking his place with a finger, Giles set aside his book for the moment as the group settled in around him.

"Ah. And how went the training session, might I ask?" Giles looked them over curiously, noting Willow's flushed and cheerful expression, Cordelia's pleased look, and Xander's somewhat rueful look at his girlfriend.

"Pretty good," Faith remarked. "It's coming along. Red staked me and Princess here managed to come up with a new trick on her own."

Cordelia made a face. "Ok, now my glow is ruined. That just made me sound like a well trained dog." She aimed a finger at Xander as he opened his mouth, causing him to close it abruptly with a click. "Not. One. Word. Doofus," she added. Faith snickered, shaking her head.

"We're doing good," Oz supplied. "Fewer bruises."

"So, how goes the book delving," Xander asked, with the others adding their own variations of the same.

"Well," Giles said in response to their questions, "I'm no longer _quite_ as certain that any of the Tantric disciplines would explain all of the effects we seem to be seeing." He set the book aside, choosing another from the stack.

"But... " Willow shook her head. "What could, then?"

"Huh. I keep feeling like we're missing parts here," Faith said. "We gots lots of odd stuff that may or may not fit together."

"Some assembly required," Oz said.

"_So_ easy a child under twelve could do it," Xander added.

"Ok, so where's our child of twelve? I feel gypped," Cordelia said. "All _we_ have is Xander and parts." She ignored Xander's mock outraged 'Hey!' and elbowed him gently in the ribs.

"We'll call _you_ when Evil needs a makeover," her boyfriend grumbled. Xander rolled his eyes, wincing, "And yes, I _do_ know that was weak even by my usual low standards." Cordelia smirked.

Giles smiled slightly, resisting the temptation to shake his head and cluck his tongue impatiently at the banter. "Hmmm. Good analogy, perhaps," he said. Removing his glasses, he began polishing them absently while watching the others. "Mayhaps it would help if we review all of the various events and, err, oddities. What do we have?"

"Buncha dead people," Faith stated. "Young guys who looked like the died of old age."

"Sexpot floozy who was last seen with at least two of them," Cordelia said. "And that sucked in every male at the Bronze somehow."

"Aging," Giles said, suddenly. To the other's inquiring looks, he explained, "The next day, both Oz and Xander here were complaining of err, unusual aches and stiffness in their joints."

"So was Scott," Faith said. A slight frown creased her forehead. "He was crippling around like he slept on rocks the next day when I bumped into him on my way to the library."

"Like, arthritis, maybe?" Cordelia glanced at Giles, who nodded. "Both of them were ok the next day... Oh - and Freddy's silver hair bleaching. Huh," she looked at Oz. "You remember." The guitarist nodded.

"Weird electrical storm," Oz said. He gave a slight shrug at the other's glances, "Radar map had it centered right over the school's area, looked like."

"Hmm." Giles replaced his glasses, looking thoughtful, "While Southern California isn't completely devoid of bad weather, that was a bit of an unusual storm for this time of year."

"Riot over a babe at the Fish Tank. And strange computer shit," Faith added, stretching her legs out and crossing her feet at the ankles as she slumped in her chair. Oz and Xander glanced at her sharply as Giles, Willow, and Cordelia nodded. Oz raised an eyebrow at Willow.

"Oh, yeah - you guys weren't there," Willow said. "_Really_ weird. Lots of connections going out from the server that shouldn't be, and this seriously _huge_ block of hidden stuff on the mainframe."

"And Willow blacked out the entire school when she started poking at it," Cordelia added, nodding. Willow glared at her, but didn't argue.

"Bizarre," Oz said.

"Huh." Xander frowned, taking a swig from his water. He ran a hand through his hair, scowling, "Wasn't the night of that big storm the same night the computer lab got trashed?"

Willow's eyes widened a bit, "Yeah! That's right! And the network cabling fried."

"You know," Xander said slowly, "The Hellmouth and computers are kind of a bad mix, sometimes."

"Are you thinking of Moloch?" Giles asked. Willow scowled, flushing a bit as Xander nodded.

"And evil Robot Ted, and the Epps do-it-yourself Build a Girl project," Xander added. Cordelia shivered slightly at the mention of Chris and Daryl Epps and he put his arm around her shoulders. "Hellmouth and weird science kinda don't play well together."

Giles frowned, removing his glasses again to let them dangle from his fingers. "I'm failing to see how Willow's computer anomaly and this... young woman and the life draining could be connected."

Everyone shook their heads, indicating they didn't see one either. "So maybe we have a bunch of weird things going on," Willow suggested. "Or - oh! Game program? If someone had their games loaded on the system, the weird storm and the Hellmouthy energy could have made something come to life?"

"Huh." Faith scowled, "Could that happen? Sounds like a bad TV show."

"Well, yeah, maybe. No, that's reaching," Willow said, slumping in her chair. "None of them have any female avatars that look like that or with those abilities. And no game program is as _big_ as that hidden block." She shook her head, "Games have to fit on a CD: five to six hundred and something megs."

"Really complex AI," Oz suggested. "And modders." A number of eyebrows went up, looking at him. Only Xander and Willow nodded slowly at the statement.

"Quake and Quake II," Xander explained. "All _kinds_ of people get into creating their own redesigns and game mods." He grinned at his friend, "The Willster and I've spent days blasting stuff in add ons she's grabbed off the Web." Willow laughed, her head bobbing in enthusiastic agreement.

"Well, while I suspect that we may be connecting disparate elements that don't necessarily belong together," Giles said. He replaced his glasses, looking around the table, "I suppose it shan't hurt to examine the possibilities." Glancing ruefully at his books, he said, "I'm certainly not turning up any better theories based upon strictly magical effects."

"Ok, so, what?" Faith's scowl deepened. She folded her arms across her chest, saying, "Computers and magic aren't something I know anything about. And I can't fight a program."

"Well, Willow and I could return to the library and do a casting to see if there's been any unusual surges in the Hellmouth itself recently," Giles stated. Willow perked up at that.

"Ok, so, like, if there is something to this, then who could have created it?" Cordelia asked. "It'd have to be someone at school, right?"

"Well, if that's what that big block _is_, yeah... " Willow said. "Huh. Fritz. But he's dead, so no. Me, and Oz," she counted off on her fingers, "Maybe a couple of Ms. Calendar's other top students."

"I know who we can ask," Xander said, shrugging. "Freddy Iverson - he's the only one who maybe had aging that we haven't seen around the babe-ette."

"All right," Faith said, cracking her knuckles. "Cordy and I can go hit the Bronze, and maybe a couple of the college clubs and see if we can spot our mystery babe."

"I know where Freddy lives," Oz said. "He's about eight blocks over from my folk's house."

"Take Xander with - we want to keep him young and dorky," Cordelia said, shooting her boyfriend a look. "And _away_ from skankette." A slightly angry expression crossed Xander's face, then he shook his head, looking away.

"I'll bring the dog house," he said to Oz, "Since it looks like I'm gonna be living it it for awhile." Oz nodded, standing up and fishing in his pocket for his keys.

"We'll need flashlights and candles, Willow, in case the lights haven't returned," Giles stated. "And weapons in case any vampires decide that the darkness makes for a good opportunity to visit the Hellmouth." Pausing, he added, "We can stop by my apartment for the lights."

"Guess training's off for the rest of the evening," Oz said.


	12. Chapter 11: Some Assembly Performed

**Chapter 11: **** Some Assembly Performed -**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Sunnydale residential area, night.**_

The drive out to Oz and Freddy's adjoining neighborhoods was quiet, mostly. 'Mostly' because it was broken periodically by Xander's sighs or muted under the breath grumblings. Oz glanced over at his friend occasionally, but let him grumble.

Finally, "The girls can take care of themselves, you know," Oz remarked.

Xander glanced sidelong at him, nodding once before resuming staring out the side window. "I know."

"But you still don't like having them go off without us," Oz said.

"Right." The corner of Xander's mouth curled up into something approaching a half grin.

"If they do find this girl, she'd be more likely to affect us," Oz said. "Again," he added.

"Yeah, I know. And G-man is a lot better with the weapons and magic, at the school," Xander sighed again, running one hand through his hair. "It's just that - "

"I know," Oz said, quietly, nodding.

"Guess you do," Xander grinned, shaking his head.

"Hey. Here we go." Oz pulled the zebra striped van in to the curb in front of a ranch style house, killing the lights. Opening his door, Xander waited a moment for Oz to come around, then fell into step beside the shorter teen. At the front door, Xander hesitated for a minute, then shrugged and pushed the door bell.

Footsteps could be heard after a short time and then a middle aged man with sandy hair and glasses peeked out through the porthole window and opened the door to the length of the chain. "Hello, yes?"

"Hey, Mr. Iverson. Is Freddy here?" Standing casually with his hands in his jacket pockets, Oz managed to look just about as unassuming and harmless as it was possible to get, despite the currently purple hair.

"Are you friends of his from school?" Mr. Iverson peered uncertainly at them.

Xander opened his mouth to say something, but Oz beat him to it with a casual shrug. "We go to school with him, yeah," Oz stated.

After staring at them for a moment, Mr. Iverson nodded abruptly. "Hold on, I'll get him to the door," he said, closing it on his last word. They waited for several minutes, exchanging brief looks and shrugs.

Several more minutes passed, then they heard the chain being taken off the inside and the front door opened. Freddy Iverson opened his mouth to say something, then stopped halfway, blinking at them. He closed his mouth, cocked his head curiously and asked, "Osbourne? And Harris? What do you two want?"

Xander gaped at him. Up close, it was easy to see why Oz had sounded dubious in the lunchroom about Iverson possibly bleaching his hair. Well, if _anyone_ would know hair coloring across a crowded lunchroom, it _would_ be Oz... Iverson's hair wasn't bleached, it was _white_. Not just white, but receding as well. And there was a network of fine wrinkles and crows feet around his eyes, with small, broken veins showing at his nose.

"Need to talk to you for a bit," Oz stated, sliding easily into Xander's open mouthed silence. "Got a sec?"

"Oh, hell," Freddy grumbled. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder into the house, he slipped out the door onto the porch, holding the door partly open with one hand. "What do you want?"

Xander finally recovered, pointing at Freddy's hair. He noticed the hand holding the edge of the door was swollen knuckled and arthritic looking, and swallowed. "Well, kinda want to know what did that to you. And what you know about it?"

"Oh yeah?" Freddy shook his head, blinking at them. "What for?"

"So we can do something about it," Oz suggested.

"Right. You and your little club of library geeks," Freddy said, making a snorting sound. "_You_ can't even deal with O'Toole, Harris."

"Hey!" Xander said. "Whatever it was, it's killing other kids. We need to know what you do."

"Well, I don't _need_ to tell you," Freddy observed. Pushing the door a bit wider, he slipped back inside abruptly, closing it to look out the crack as he slipped the chain back on. "Go the hell away."

Xander took a step forward only to have the door slammed on him. Making a growling sound of frustration, he made a fist and banged on the door several times, yelling, "Freddy! Get back here - we need to talk."

A few minutes later the door opened again to the end of the security chain and Mr. Iverson looked out at them again. "Freddy doesn't want to talk to you any more."

"Well, we _really_ need to ask him a few things," Xander said.

"Look, kids. My boy's not feeling well and he doesn't need to be bothered," Mr. Iverson stated. "Go away, or do I need to call the police and have them come out?"

Xander opened his mouth to try again and Oz nudged him with an elbow.

"Come on, Xan. Let's go," Oz said. "Sorry to bother you, Mr. Iverson." Iverson slammed the door on them without answering, and they heard the deadbolt locking on the other side.

"Well, crap." Xander remarked as he headed back down the walk to the van, following Oz. "Now what?"

"Well, we know Freddy had a close encounter," Oz remarked, pausing by the front of the van. He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then cocked his head. "Who does he hang around with?"

"Uh... " Xander's brow furrowed as he tried to think of anyone. "Let's see. Ah," he said, snapping his fingers. "Jonathan and that Lance kid, mostly. Sometimes Tucker, but mostly the other two, I think."

"Levinson?" Xander nodded to Oz's question. "Huh. And Jonathan wasn't at school after the storm... Ok," the guitarist said, "Coin flip?"

"Jonathan. He's a computer guy, too," Xander said after considering for a moment. "And he owes me at _least_ one. Maybe he'll be more cooperative?"

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Sunnydale High School library, night.**_

Turning the battery powered lantern on and setting it to one side, Giles pursed his lips thoughtfully. Nodding to himself, he reached out and extinguished the nearest of the candles to him as Willow did the same with the ones on her side of the circle. "Well," Giles ventured, "While it is impossible to pinpoint with _exact_ certainty, we now know that there _was_ a brief surge in the Hellmouth's energies within the last several days to a week."

"Uh huh," Willow nodded, agreeing. "Uh... I don't know how to read that exactly yet. Could you tell roughly when?"

"Not precisely, no," Giles said, sighing. "But somewhere within a three day period coinciding with the err, freak thunderstorm centered on this area."

"Hmm." Willow bit her lower lip slightly, looking thoughtful. Coming up to her knees, she began picking up the candles and other paraphernalia and packing them away into Giles' satchel. Giles watched her for a few moments, then stood, turning toward his office with a flashlight.

"Thank you. If you don't mind finishing putting that away, I'll pick up a few extra references from my shelves to take back with us," he remarked.

Once they'd gathered everything up and Giles had retrieved his additional resource materials, they exited the library. At the main doors, Giles reached over by reflex to flip off the light switch, remembering after that it was unnecessary. "Bugger," he muttered. Willow glanced over at him, giggling.

She shrugged, letting the main doors close behind them. "They should have city electricians out tomorrow at the latest to get the power back on. Have to have it before school Monday."

"One would certainly hope," Giles said. Willow's eyes widened slightly.

"Oooh - be right back," she exclaimed. "Need to check something." Thumbing on her own flashlight, Willow took off down the hallway in the general direction of the school's basement and main computer room.

"Wait! Oh, bugger," Giles remarked again, a bit more loudly. Shaking his head, he set off following the girl.

Downstairs, he caught up with her at the man door to the computer and server room. Standing a bit on her toes, Willow had her face pressed to the porthole window in the door, peering in.

"Ah. _Please_ do not run off alone like that, Willow," Giles said. "While I realize we haven't seen any indications of vampires so far, it doesn't mean there _may_ not be any within the building at all."

"Right, sorry," Willow muttered. She sank off of her toes, stepping back from the doors and crossing her arms. "Huh. I wondered if that might be the case - there's still emergency lighting in the computer room and power to the mainframe and server."

"Hmm?" Giles' eyebrows raised and Willow glanced up at him. "Sorry," he said, removing his glasses to let them dangle from his fingers. "I'm not seeing the significance. Wouldn't the, err, auxiliary power have cut on to here?"

"Maybe... " Willow frowned. "But the backup un-interruptible power systems only have a limited battery life. If, err, all of the power cut off, then the systems would go into shut down automatically, right?" Giles nodded a bit uncertainly. Willow stood on her toes again, peering in one porthole window while shining her flashlight in through the other. "I can't see," she said, "Whether the breakers are all tripped except the one for this room."

Searching his inside jacket pocket reflexively, Giles shook his head. "I'm afraid I only took books and materials from my apartment," he said. "I hadn't expected to need burglary tools as well."

Willow shrugged. "Well, if we really need to, we'll figure something out."

"Hmm." Giles frowned again, replacing his glasses. "Are those breakers err, computer controlled? That seems rather... " he trailed off.

Sighing, Willow sank back again, scowling. "I don't know for sure. This school has a really _weird_ computer set up for a high school." She made an exasperated noise at Giles' blank look. "I mean, most schools have older machines for students. We have top of the line desktop systems and workstations in the computer labs. A-an-and a mainframe _and_ a sever. And not just a T1 line, but separate ADSL lines too!"

Shaking his head, Giles remarked, "I'm afraid this is all rather, err, gobble-de-gook to me."

Flashing him a small grin, Willow bobbed her head. "Yeah. B-but - ask Oz. It's weird. And the school lights, alarms, and sprinkler systems are all controlled by the mainframe, and the phone system, I think. So the breakers and main power switching might be, _too_."

"That sounds rather... " Giles trailed off again, as if at a loss. "Dangerous to me," he added, finally.

"Yeah," Willow's voice was uncertain. "Means if we're right about everything, we've got a _big_ problem. As big as Moloch, maybe."

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; The Bronze, night.**_

With the current band, Nightmare Cinematics, on stage playing a mixture of grunge metal remixes of rock and more neo-punkish tunes, the Bronze was crowded even for relatively early on a Saturday night. Faith and Cordelia split once inside the doors to search for any signs of their target. Roughly a half hour later, they wended their way back through the crowd to meet up at the side bar near their usual booth.

"Nothing?" Cordelia almost shouted over the music.

"Naw," Faith shook her head. "Still early though." The band broke off, ending the set, and they were able to talk a bit more normally.

"So, what? Wait around awhile?" Taking their drinks from the bartender, Cordelia passed Faith hers and leaned against the bar to sip at her own.

Biting at her lower lip, Faith frowned. "Huh. Either wait, or go hit some of the college bars you mentioned and head back later." Shrugging, she pointed up and across the room, "Let's head upstairs so we can watch the crowd easier while we finish these, then decide."

With a nod, Cordelia followed Faith across the edges of the floor to the club's second level.

Leaning against the upper floor rail next to Cordelia, Faith remarked, "Not seeing much of the regular crowd - Scott, Aura, or anyone."

"Still early, like you said." Watching the floor below, Cordelia shrugged, sipping at her drink. "Be in later, probably, if at all."

Scanning the upstairs crowd, Faith didn't bother responding. She was quite honestly bored, impatient, and frustrated - the more pieces they put together, the less this was sounding like something she could fight effectively. Spotting a somewhat familiar profile on the other side of the upper level, she narrowed her eyes, watching intently for several minutes.

After a bit, she nudged Cordelia with an elbow. "Keep watching the lower level? See someone I want to check out."

"Our skank?" Cordelia asked, her interest sharpening. Faith shook her head, already moving away.

Moving along the back wall so as to approach from the rear and at an angle, Faith worked her way up until she slid up to the railing next to her target. The currently rusty haired girl glanced over, nodding, then went back to watching the crowd below with a bored expression.

"Slayer," Shelia remarked in a lazy voice.

"Vamp," Faith said. Giving the dead girl a casual glance over, Faith shook her head. "Gotta wonder how you guys manage your makeup, what with the mirror thing and all."

"Practice, practice," Shelia said, laughing softly. "You wandered over for cosmetic tips?"

"Not hardly," Faith said. "Thought you said once that this place was a 'Barbie joint'?" She gave the vampire a curious glance, smirking.

"Is," Shelia said, nodding. "But I like the band here this weekend." Taking a pull from her drink, she added, "'Sides, my usual hangout's still closed for repairs."

"Ah. That's right, you hang at the Fish Tank a lot," Faith said. "Happen to be there for the brawl?"

"Start of it," Shelia stated. "Left when it started spreading. Why?"

"Curious if you saw what happened," Faith remarked, casually.

"Not much to see. Bunch of bikers and other lowlifes started duking it out over some chick - usual noise," Shelia shrugged. "Got ugly fast, I left."

Keeping her expression blank, Faith asked, "Some chick, huh? Get a look at her?"

"Uh... " Shelia's eyes narrowed slightly in concentration. "Dark hair, tan... bout your size or maybe a bit shorter. Bigger chest. Real hot. Why?"

"Not real sure yet," Faith admitted. "You hear anything about guys turning up dead from old age, only they're all young and shit?"

Shelia frowned, turning her head to look directly at the slayer. "Some... not really a big news buff, y'know? Gossip around Willy's."

"Right." Faith cocked her head, studying the vampiress. "Think maybe this chick might be doing it."

"Huh." Shelia's frown deepened, and she shook her head slightly. "Not a vamp or a demon. Not so's I could tell, anyway."

Faith shrugged, looking out over the crowd again. "Yeah, well. There's other kinds of baddies."

Shelia nodded, also leaning forward to look out over the floor. "Huh," she said again. Faith's eyebrow's lifted and she turned her head, watching the vamp. "No smell," Shelia said, slowly.

"Huh?"

"Circled around her and her collection of hangers on to get to the back door," Shelia remarked. "She didn't have a scent that I noticed. Didn't think about it at the time."

"Didn't occur to you to wonder?" Faith's tone was skeptical.

"Was concentrating more on sliding past without having to deck or kill someone," Shelia stated, flatly. "Before everything broke sideways and I got caught up in a brawl."

Faith considered that, nodding finally. "'K, don't do anything to make me have to stake you, huh?"

"Not planning on it," Shelia smirked. Faith waved negligently and headed off into the crowd and back to Cordelia.


	13. Chapter 12: We Have Enough Youth

**Chapter 12: ****We Have Enough Youth -**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Sunnydale residential area, night.**_

"I think it's nice of you boys to come and offer to bring Jonathan his homework," Mrs. Levinson said as she led Xander and Oz down the hallway.

"Least we could do," Oz said, shrugging. Xander nodded and tried to look like he wasn't nervous.

"Well, I think it's nice. Jonathan's been really sick lately - he hasn't even been able to come out of his room," Jonathan's mother stated. Xander and Oz exchanged looks, with almost identical raised eyebrows. Only in Sunnydale.

Coming to a door at the side of the hall near the back of the house, Mrs. Levinson knocked sharply at it, raising her voice slightly, "Jonathan? Some friends from school are here to see you." Turning away from the door, she told Xander and Oz, "He'll be up in a minute, I imagine."

Leaving them to wait, Mrs. Levinson headed back up the hallway to the front of the house, disappearing through the doorway into the living room.

Xander looked at Oz and shook his head slightly. "Too strange," he said.

"Hellmouthy," Oz agreed.

After another several minutes, the doorknob turned and the door opened somewhat, Jonathan looking out at them with a bleary expression. Even expecting it after seeing Freddy, Xander found himself unable to do much more than stare at the smaller boy. "Oh. My. God... " came out of Xander's mouth.

"Who... Xander? What do you guys want?" Jonathan said, blinking at them.

An expressionless Oz said, "Hey."

Shaking off his shock, Xander put a hand to the door, pushing on it. Stepping forward a bit, he said, "Man, we need to _talk_. Now."

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Dave's B&B near Crestwood, night.**_

Cordelia put the convertible into park, setting the parking brake before unbuckling her seat harness and glancing across to her companion. Faith scowled unbuckling her own belt and working her shoulders in her seat, leaning forward.

"Well," Cordelia remarked, opening her door, "Dave's B&B. Last college age bar on our tour - if she doesn't show up here, I'm out of ideas."

"Yeah." Faith shook her head, sliding out of her door and standing up. "Me too." She bumped the car door shut with her hip, scanning the parking lot. "Assuming she's not showing up at places after we're gone."

"Yeah." Cordelia ran her eyes across the sleek lines of the XLR's dashboard, biting her lip. "As much as I'd hate to spoil the interior, one of those scanner thingys might come in handy," she admitted.

"Mebbe so. Willy's got one - said all the regulars were listening to the brawl at the Fish Tank for 'entertainment'," Faith said, making air quotes around the word.

Standing up on her own side and stretching a bit, Cordelia set the locks and checked her purse. "You've been awful quiet since the Bronze," she stated. "Something Shelia said bugging you?"

"Huh?" Faith glanced over at her, startled. "Oh - naw. Just thinking, s'all."

"Oh." Cordelia watched her as Faith came around the front of the car. Leaning against the driver's side door, she cocked her head, giving the other girl a curious look. "Deep, heavy thoughts? Or just daydreaming distracty thoughts?"

"Hah!" Faith shook her head, leaning against the side of a van parked next to the cheerleader's car. "Not sure. 'Bout all of this... " Faith made a gesture that could have been encompassing the crowded parking lot, but possibly wasn't.

"B&B this? Or the whole situation 'this'?" Cordelia asked.

"Last," Faith stated, scowling slightly. She reached up, pushing her hair back from her face. "Let's say we do find this girl. Then what?"

Cocking her head curiously, Cordelia looked an inquiry at her friend. "Not sure," she admitted.

"Yeah. Me either," Faith said. She stretched, then stuck her hands in her back pockets, kicking at the asphalt with one booted toe. "Gimme a demon or a vamp to pound, hey - no probs. Computers and weird science shit? Gots no clue."

Cordelia shook her head slightly, then grinned abruptly. "Yeah. It's hard feeling useless, huh?"

"Yeah... hey!" Faith scowled even deeper at the other girl, her eyes flashing. She straightened off the van, starting to walk across the parking lot toward the club.

"Welcome to the club," Cordelia suggested, falling into step beside her. "Now you know how a lot of us feel with most of this stuff."

Faith gave the cheerleader a hard look. "Not sure I like your tone there, friendy," she stated.

"Not sure I meant you to," Cordelia said, still grinning. "Look - vamps, Nightgaunt thingys, demons, demon mobsters... last couple of months, you've been about the _least_ useless person around. We wouldn't have made it through without you." She shrugged, "So once we get something that muscle can't solve. It happens."

Faith stopped, cocking her head and studying her friend. "You really feel like that a lot?"

"Like a fifth wheel? Or like we couldn't make it through this without you?" Cordelia asked. "Both, a lot of times. Me, Willow, Xander, probably even Oz. At least Giles knows about all this stuff. We just muddle through and back you up."

"You do more than that," Faith said, frowning. "Lots more."

"And you do more than just beat things up," Cordelia said, nodding. "So this time Willow and Oz's skills might be key. Is that a big deal?"

Faith stared at her, considering. "Might be good for them to have something they're good at come into play, y'think?"

"Might." Cordelia nodded, starting towards the club again. "Of course, it'll probably make Willow _insufferable_ for a few days."

Faith laughed, shaking her head and falling back in step next to the other girl. "Now I know why slayers are supposed to work alone - this teamwork shit's _hard_."

They pushed through the doors, Cordelia paying the cover for both of them. Once inside, they headed over to the bar, casually scanning the crowd as they went through. Getting a couple of soft drinks from the bartender, Faith glanced around, then pointed to the upper level, catching Cordelia's eye. Cordelia nodded rather than trying to shout over the music, following her over to the stairs leading up to the second level balcony and railing.

Upstairs, they leaned on the railing sipping their sodas and watching the crowd below. Spotting a cluster of men and a flash of dark hair in one section of the dance floor, Faith watching intently for several minutes, then nudged Cordelia.

Putting her mouth close to the other girl's ear, she said, "Bingo. Somehow don't think _finding_ the bitch is gonna be a big problem."

Cordelia nodded, biting at her lower lip as she followed the Slayer's back as it pushed through the upper level crowd and over to the stairs.

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Jonathan Levinson's house, night.**_

After managing to work the story out of Jonathan finally and listening to it all the way through, Xander was still having a hard time doing more than looking incredulously at the other teen. Not quite as bad as the photos of the corpses they'd seen in the paper and that Willow had pulled up from the police/morgue files, Jonathan still looked like he'd aged 50 years since Xander had last seen him.

It was like seeing a doctored photo showing what the other kid would look like as a late, late middle aged man. Even after everything else he'd seen on the Hellmouth since his introduction to Buffy Summers had wakened him to the real world, this was... bizarre. Xander shook his head, "Guy, that's just messed up."

"Trippy," Oz said, agreeing. He had a peculiarly cold look in his eyes as they'd listened to Jonathan haltingly spill out the story. "Gotta help us fix this, guy."

"Dunno what I can do," Jonathan said in a dull voice. "This is so not what we were expecting."

"Whatever you expected," Oz said, cocking his head, "What you _got_ is out there killing people." Jonathan winced, looking away guiltily.

"Ok. So you just whipped up a magic dating AI sim... simu... " Xander trailed off, running a hand through his hair.

"Simulation," Oz supplied. "Or maybe simulacrum," he added with a slight quirk of the lips.

"Right," Xander said, shooting Oz a look. "Simulation around this place, and expected nothing weird to happen? _Jeeze_... " Shaking his head, he glanced at Oz, adding, "I'm not so sure about that growing up thing you mentioned before." He gestured at Jonathan, the movement taking in the shorter teen's appearance.

"Hey, we got enough youth around here," Oz stated. "What we really need is a fountain of _smart_." Jonathan winced, flushing under the musician's scrutiny. In spite of himself, Xander's mouth quirked into a half grin.

"Not like that," Jonathan said. "And there was nothing 'just' about it - you have no idea how _complex_ that program is. I'm not sure you even _can_ shut it down."

"Why don't you explain it to us," Xander suggested. "Use technical words - I'm sure Oz can keep up. I'll just watch and nod like I understand things."

**...**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; Dave's B&B near Crestwood, night.**_

Cordelia trailed behind a bit as Faith pushed through the crowd of male dancers surrounding the undulating brunette. Remembering what had been said about the riot at the Fish Tank, plus what Faith had told her, she had a real bad feeling about this, suddenly. The near hypnotized expressions on some of the men surrounding the exotic looking beauty suddenly reminded her far too much of the faces of the women chasing Xander and her during the love spell incident.

Faith, naturally, plowed right on through: caution to the winds. Grabbing a guy between herself and the other brunette by the collar and back of the belt, she cleared an opening by the simple expedient of picking him up and setting him to one side. Ignoring his yelp and outraged look, Faith slipped through the opening created and grabbed the dark haired girl by the upper arm, swinging her around.

"Hey, girlfriend," Faith shouted over the music, "We need to talk. _Now_."

"Hey, Rochelle - this bitch bothering you?" Someone called out from the surrounding males. There was a low mutter that rippled through at that.

"Boring me, more like," the girl - Rochelle? - called back, laughing. She pulled her arm out of Faith's grasp with an almost contemptuous ease.

Eyes narrowing, Faith stepped straight into the other girl's space. Someone grabbed her shoulder to pull her away, and Faith jabbed backwards with an elbow almost casually, sending the guy stumbling back and gasping. Cordelia stepped back a bit further as the muttering intensified.

"This is gonna _end_, tonight," Faith stated.

"Oh, please," Rochelle's eyes rolled. "I gave you _your_ boys back. There's plenty for both of us." The music lowered slightly, making it easier to hear.

"Yeah, well, you're _killing_ yours," Faith yelled. She dropped her voice a bit as the lowered music volume registered on her. "Can't have that."

"Killing?" The brunette frowned, looking confused. "Not my fault if their coding is too faulty to handle disruptions to their spark."

"Disruptions?" Cordelia couldn't see Faith's expression from where she was, but she could picture the Slayer's eyes narrowed combat smirk. "Disrupt _this_," Faith snarled, her right fist coming out and across in a blurring movement from out of nowhere.

Rochelle stumbled back, almost falling until she crashed into the circle of guys behind her. Several of them went down as she caught herself. The other girl... _flickered_, was the only description Cordelia could come up with. Like a disrupted hologram on one of those bad sci-fi programs Xander was always trying to get her to watch with him.

Moving up, Faith nailed her again with a straight body shot from the other hand and as Rochelle flickered once more, everything suddenly went sideways on them.

Shortly after, Faith and Rochelle disappeared from her view as a mass of male bodies swarmed the Slayer, the low mutter turning into a nastier low roar from multiple throats. Rolling her eyes, Cordelia plunged into the edge of the fray, trying to pull bodies away from her friend. There were thudding sounds and noises like someone hitting raw steak from deeper within the roil.

Yanking one guy back and away with strength born of sheer desperation, Cordelia grabbed another by the collar, trying to clear some space for Faith to fight in. She desperately hoped the hot headed Slayer wasn't killing anyone in there.

Her target swung his arm back, striking her across the chest and sending her stumbling back. _'Ow, that's going to bruise,'_ Cordelia thought, wildly. The college looking guy turned on her with a pool cue he'd been carrying for some reason, his eyes murderous. Completely without thinking about it, Cordelia stepped into the overhand blow, grabbing the wrist as it came down, turning, pulling and twisting. Her elbow went back almost of its own volition, cracking the guy on the point of the chin with near bone breaking force and sending him stumbling back a step as the pool cue came away in her other hand.

_'Sonofabitch, that worked!'_ Went through Cordelia's mind as she almost froze in shock. The guy shaking his head and stepping forward again snapped her out of it and she brought the butt end of the cue down on top of his head almost in a panic. His eyes rolled back into his head and he went to his knees as she stumbled back, wild eyed.

Throwing a frantic glance around, she saw Faith standing in the midst of a cluster of down and groaning males, her face bloody and her shirt and jacket ripped in several places. Rochelle stepped back a bit, her eyes narrowing as she cocked her head, studying Faith.

"Well, phooey," she remarked, raising her arms overhead. There was a shower of sparks from the overhead lighting as electricity arced from those, the speakers and amps, and the sound system into her, coiling around her body like blue white snakes. Faith took a step back as the energy arced out and away from the other girl, slamming into her chest and arching her back.

"_Faith!!_" Cordelia managed to reach where her friend hit the ground several yards away, sparks coiling about her. She fell to her knees beside Faith, frantically checking for a pulse and almost sobbing with relief when she found one. The rest of the crowd scattered as the club went suddenly dark and silent except for the sounds of people rushing the exits.

Faith coughed, smoke coming off of her hair and the front of her now ruined shirt. "Wow. What a ride," she muttered dazedly. She pushed herself up to an elbow as Cordelia pulled her up.

"We've so _got_ to get _out_ of here," Cordelia shouted at her, hoping that no one would stumble over and trample them trying to get out of the club. So far no one had - the crowd diverting around the circle of down, groaning, and/or unconscious guys Faith had been fighting with. Tugging upwards until she could get an arm under Faith's shoulders, she pulled the dazed Slayer to her feet. Cordelia slipped an arm around Faith's waist as the other girl's knees buckled slightly.

"Where's that bitch?" Faith mumbled, glaring around wide eyed in the glow of the few remaining lights in the room.

"Dunno," Cordelia said impatiently. "Gone. Let's get out to the car." Nodding dazedly, Faith let Cordelia half drag, half lead her across and out the doors of the club.


	14. Chapter 13: Magic and Microchips

**Chapter 13: Magic and Microchips -**

_**Saturday September 12, 1998; E. Chestnut St., Sunnydale, late night.**_

Bursting into the upstairs research area at the Shop, Xander and Oz skidded to a halt upon seeing Faith sprawled in a chair chugging Gatorade while being tended to by Giles and Cordelia while a worried looking Willow watched. There was a pile of scorched smelling clothes on one chair, and Faith had apparently changed back into sweats at some point.

"Whoa," Oz stated.

"What he said," Xander remarked. "What happened?" Kneeling down a bit away from Faith's chair he gave her and Cordelia a concerned look.

"Heh. Hunted girl, found girl, got butt kicked," Faith said, sourly. "What's it look like?"

"Not slayer friendly, I take it?" Oz said.

"Not hardly," Cordelia's mouth twitched into a rueful grin. "Miss Pounds-a-lot here didn't even make a dent in her," she said.

"She cheated," Faith smirked. "Ow." She pulled her head back slightly, glaring as Giles probed at one of the discolored places on her cheek.

"Sorry," the Englishman murmured.

"Ok." Xander cocked his head, looking at Faith's eyes. "You're going to look like a raccoon when those come in."

Faith shook her head, laughing softly even as she glared at him. "Screw you, Harris."

"Well," Giles remarked, straightening up. "That's all I can really do. You're quite fortunate you weren't electrocuted."

"Not grounded," Willow said. Everyone looked at her and she shrugged. "You can take a lot of current as long as you're not grounded."

"Nice to know," Faith said. "Think I'm gonna pass on experimenting, huh?" Willow nodded enthusiastically.

"Tell us you guys found something?" Cordelia asked, looking at her boyfriend.

"Why, yes. And boy have we got a story to tell you guys," Xander said. Pulling a sheaf of computer printout from inside his jacket, he jerked his head towards Oz and the bag Oz was carrying. "And visual aids."

**...**

Rupert Giles rubbed his eyes tiredly. Putting his glasses back on, he looked across the research table to where Willow and Oz had their heads together over the printout that the two boys had brought with them from Jonathan Levinson's house. The three of them were the only ones left awake by this point, Cordelia and Faith having gone to sleep earlier in the bed in the Shop's small apartment. Shortly after, once he'd fallen asleep one too many times over a book, Giles had sent Xander after them, the dark haired teen falling asleep almost immediately upon hitting the couch.

Once they'd gotten everyone's stories out and correlated, there really hadn't been much for the other three teens to do for the moment. Giles busied himself reading through various compilations of banishments and exorcism rites as he waited for the computer experts of the group to finish their analysis.

"Ok, this is really complex," Willow stated, finally. Keys clicked quietly as she added to the list of notes she'd been keeping on her laptop. Oz nodded, running a hand through his hair as he leaned back from the table. "I didn't realize Jonathan was this good a programmer. I-I mean, I knew he was good, but this is something else." She shook her head, "These huge repeating blocks here have to be where the magical elements tie into the AI coding somehow."

"He said he had help with the code," Oz remarked. "And with the mystical elements."

"Did he say who gave him the assistance?" Giles asked.

"No. Refused," Oz stated. The guitarist gave Giles a tight smile. "And we couldn't exactly torture it out of him with his parents in the house not far away."

That caused Giles to give the small teen a sharp glance. Studying Oz, he was unable to discern any indication the teen was joking. As a matter of fact, he realized, there'd been an intensity about the normally relaxed guitar player of late during this that Giles wasn't used to seeing.

"This rather bothers you, doesn't it?" Giles waved a hand towards the printouts and the discs that Xander and Oz had brought back from Jonathan's house. Oz studied him carefully, then nodded abruptly.

"Creating something like this does," Oz said, quietly. "Too much like that business with that spell last year. It's not right."

Willow glanced at him sharply. "I-I'm sure they didn't mean for anything like this to happen. It's one of those freak accident things."

Oz spread his hands, studying them casually and lifting an eyebrow. "Doesn't matter what they _meant_. People are still dying from it." he raised his head, looking off past the table. "What you _do_ matters. Not _just_ what you mean to do."

"But... " Willow trailed off, shaking her head. Giles pursed his lips slightly, considering, then gave Oz a slight nod of understanding.

"Code's clean. It does what you put into it, nothing more, nothing less," Oz stated, tapping the printout. "What's in here and out here is their intent. Just twisted once it got loose."

Removing his glasses, Giles set them on the table, leaning back. "Magic is like that as well. It responds to caster's intent, not merely the words and rituals." He paused, ordering his thoughts, adding, "That is a reason so many spells tend to go awry for all except the most disciplined and clearest minded of practitioners - people's true intentions are very seldom completely clear and conscious to them." He watched with fascination as Oz's gaze went distant and the teen filed that away, nodding finally.

"So... " Willow said slowly. She had an extremely disturbed expression on her face. "When the Hellmouth energy surge or whatever it was hit, it took their code and their conscious and subconscious intentions in the mystical coding and twisted it to make," she waved in the general direction of Sunnydale outside of the room, "Whatever that is running around out there?"

"Quite possibly so," Giles said. He replaced his glasses. "The real question right now is, can we do anything to put this thing back into its bottle, as it were."

Oz shrugged, and Willow's face became a mask of concentration. "I _think_ so," she said finally. "Oz and I can write - or modify - a virus program targeted to this specific program that will kinda... latch onto it and then unravel and corrupt its functions." Willow made a face, adding, "Sorry, that's not a real precise description."

"I believe I gather the gist of your meaning, perhaps surprisingly," Giles stated. "Hrmm. Will that be enough, however?"

"Uh, what do you mean?" Willow gave him a puzzled look.

"Well," Giles thought for a moment. "If this, err, code that created this simulacrum is partially mystical, then will a purely non-mystical attack be sufficient?"

"Huh." Oz cocked his head, looking thoughtful. "Maybe not."

Giles nodded, gesturing at the books he'd been browsing. "Possibly an exorcism and binding worked in conjunction with your, err... " he trailed off.

"Worm program," Willow supplied.

"Thank you, Willow," Giles nodded. "With your err, worm program will be sufficient. I shall, however, need one of your assistance in determining the right form of binding and exorcising rituals to combine for this."

Both teens looked at each other. Oz pursed his lips, reaching out for a book from the stack. "Willow's the better cracker. I'll help with the research," he said. "I can help with the final programming once Willow finishes modifying and designing the virus." Willow grinned at him, nodding.

"Very well," Giles said. "I'll assume the two of you know your respective skills at this, err, 'infernal art' better than I." He smiled gently letting them know his 'infernal' comment was partly in jest. Pausing, he glanced at the wall clock, sighing. "We should do this as early as possible, I suspect, given that our... being seems to be active at night."

"Going to be a long night then," Oz remarked, his attention already buried in the book of binding rituals.

**...**

_**Sunday September 13, 1998; Sunnydale High School's computer center, late morning.**_

"Quit ogling my chest, Dweeb, and pay attention to what you're doing," Cordelia said as Xander worked at pulling the zipper up the last several inches on her wet suit. "You too," she said, glancing at Faith.

Faith smirked. "I _am_ watching what Harris is doing." Xander grinned at her, turning back to the impatient Cordelia's suit.

"But they're such a _nice_ chest," Xander remarked, smirking. "And if you'd cut back on the chocolate, you'd be able to do this yourself."

"Oooh," Cordelia's eyes flashed. Xander dodged back laughing as she swatted at him, snapping out, "I am so _not_ fat, Geek-boy." Her eyes were laughing though as she added, "This thing's too small."

"Best they had," Oz stated. "Lucky I got my friend to open up for us early on a Sunday." He turned back to finishing checking the fit on his own suit.

"No worries," Faith said. "Cordy's just being herself." Oz nodded, quirking a small grin. Faith grinned back at him, saying, "Good idea, Wolfie. Might help keep us from getting too fried this time."

"Sure Will and Giles will be ok without?" Xander shot a concerned glance at his oldest friend.

"Should," Willow said, nodding. "She can't shoot electricity too close to the mainframe if that's where she's loaded - frying the CPU and motherboard probably wouldn't be good for her. Or frying the server."

"Rules out killing all of the power in here, too," Oz said. "Program can't run if the system's off line."

Faith frowned slightly, then shrugged. Something didn't quite click on that, but she decided to leave it to the computer experts. Cordelia scowled, too, asking, "So, why are we not just pulling the plug on everything, then?"

Willow shook her head. "They'll just plug it back in Monday morning and we'll be back to square one."

Giles gave Xander a sharp look, cutting across him before he managed to do much more than open his mouth, "And no, before you suggest it, we are _not_ going to destroy several tens of thousands of dollars of school property when we're not even certain that would work as a solution." Xander closed his mouth with a sheepish expression. "Not unless we absolutely have to," Giles added with a slight smirk.

Willow sent Giles a scandalized look at his addition, clucking her tongue and then going back to inscribing the design for the binding ritual circle near the mainframe. Giles laid out the candles and other ingredients, standing finally when he was satisfied.

"Ok, so... all of the computer activity you saw Saturday," Cordelia said. "How do we know she hasn't moved or loaded herself or whatever somewhere else?"

"Well," Willow bit her lower lip worriedly. "We _don't_ really. Not until we can check the logs from inside where she can't shut us down." Willow gestured at the server, adding, "But that's almost thirty gigabytes of data on those discs. And the hidden block is even bigger - like it expanded with the Hellmouthy energy. It takes a _long_ time to transfer that much data even on the school's lines out."

"No telling if that would even transfer the simulacrum," Oz said, shrugging. "Magic may not go with, away from the Hellmouth."

"Yeah, but... " Xander shook his head, frowning. "Wednesday night to now, that's a long time."

"Server was out 'til Friday evening though," Oz reminded him. "Gotta go through the server out from this." He inclined his head to the mainframe.

"Oh. Right." Xander shrugged.

"Find out when Oz gets hooked in, I guess," Faith said. She cocked her head, giving the two hackers and Giles a critical once over. "You guys gonna be all right?" All three of them looked exhausted from their all night session over the books and programming.

"Just as long as I can make it home and collapse once this is done," Giles said. Willow and Oz nodded their agreement as Willow yawned.

"Can't believe that Jonathan kid did this," Faith grumbled. "Gonna have words with him."

"_Males_," Cordelia said, making a disgusted face.

"I would say 'hey!', in defense of our gender," Xander remarked, "Except I'm kind of with you on the disgusted there."

"Not sure I can fight in these," Faith said as she pulled on the insulated gloves. She tried a few experimental punches, frowning as she made fists.

Giles nodded, removing his glasses to give them one last, quick polishing. "Well, you, Xander, and Cordelia need mainly to keep her.. it... the simulacrum occupied and off balance while Oz completes his task and Willow and I perform the binding and exorcism ritual." He paused, considering. "Once started, the entire thing should be over fairly quickly."

"That's what scares me," Xander quipped. Cordelia nodded.

"'K. And we're waiting on... ?" Faith bounced once on her toes before settling down into a ready stance.

Checking his watch, Giles pointed at the wall clock. "Noon. While midnight is the more mystically traditional time for rituals such as this, we've taken advantage of some that are designed for spiritual belief systems where noon is a time of weakness for certain creatures of magic, and adjusted accordingly to give us the best possible chances." Frowning slightly, he added not quite under his breath, "Best possible chance for an untested and modified ritual designed for a creature not dreamt of in any known mythology, at least."

After a tense period of waiting, Giles indicated to Oz to begin on his end of the project. Nodding, the musician logged himself in using one of Willow's 'borrowed' passwords and accesses, and began checking the system over as Giles began preparations to begin the ritual end.

After a bit, Oz stated quietly, "Nothing shows that twenty or thirty plus gigs have been uploaded elsewhere from this system yet. Lotsa traffic, though." Working at the keyboard for a few seconds he added, "Ok, virus scans and protections are disabled, and all firewalls and secondary protections." Inserting a disc, he started copying and then loading his and Willow's modified targeted worm program.

Shortly after Oz said, "Running," there was a blueish white flash at the point where the phone lines and other communications cabling connected to the server and suddenly the dark haired girl from the Bronze and the college club had formed out of nowhere in the midst of the computer room. Moving quickly, Willow darted over and yanked the communications cabling followed by pulling the server's power cord from the socket - causing a catastrophic shutdown on the system.

"What - " Rochelle half turned towards her, eyebrows raised in surprise. Faith interrupted whatever she'd been about to remark by stepping in with a solid kick to the chest that sent the simulacrum bouncing off of the front wall of the computer room.

"Payback's a mother, bitch," Faith said, smirking as the girl simulacrum's form _flickered_ as it had at the club. She stepped in with a spin kick to the jaw that bounced Rochelle off the wall again as she bounced forward, causing another, longer flicker.

"You... " Rochelle gathered herself slightly, eyes narrowed as sparks began to gather around her hands. Cordelia stepped in from the side, smacking her solidly with a baseball bat. Faith and Xander hit her at once, fists and bat, causing the flicker to become an extended shimmer.

Meanwhile, Giles and Willow began chanting from opposite sides of the chalked design near the mainframe, taking counterpointing parts of the ritual chant. The flickering intensified.

A solid hit to the chest sent Faith staggering backwards. Rochelle's eyes narrowed again and Xander's mouth suddenly dropped open slightly. His bat stopped in mid swing at the brunette's head and he turned jerkily towards Giles and Willow. Rochelle flickered again as Cordelia brought her bat around like Babe Ruth going for a homer, knocking her forward into Faith, and Xander stopped three steps into moving towards Giles, blinking and shaking his head.

Faith threw the simulacrum back and kicked her into the wall again and into the path of Cordelia's backhand swing as Giles and Willow's chanting came together, ending on a high, harsh note.

The brunette simulacrum flickered all over for a long minute, the flickering intensifying, and then with an electronic wail she blinked out.

"Miss Pounds-a-lot, huh?" Faith smirked, raising her eyebrows at Cordelia's bat. "You don't seem to do so bad at that yourself." Her only response was a megawatt smile from Cordelia before the cheerleader went to check on Xander.

"Ok... " Oz said, watching his display. "Seems to have worked."

"Excellent," Giles said as the others slumped, letting out their breaths heavily. "Lets, err, clean up our tracks here as it were and make certain, shall we?"

"Does anyone else feel like that was anticlimactic?" Xander asked.

Cordelia snickered, shaking her head. "I'm more surprised you know a word like 'anticlimactic', Goof."


	15. Chapter 14: Percussion and Repercussions

**Chapter 14: Percussions and Repercussions -**

_**Monday September 14, 1998; Sunnydale High School rear courtyard, early afternoon.**_

Anyone else would be accurately characterized as being 'in a mood'. Faith had gone from 'slow simmer' after hearing the details of what Xander and Oz had gotten out of Jonathan Saturday night through 'in a mood' and past that into 'simmering boil' by the time she'd woken up late Monday morning.

She wasn't _quite_ homicidal by the time she stormed onto Sunnydale high school's campus near the middle of lunch period, but that was only because she hadn't completely managed to figure out just exactly _what_ she was so pissed off about. She just knew she was.

A couple of SHS's jocks, on seeing the sultry looking girl stalking across the open courtyard back of the lunchroom, _almost_ decided to intercept and hit on her. Briefly. A cold glance from her froze them in mid step and they abruptly decided to go try their luck with a couple of school's drill team members.

Spotting a frightened looking Jonathan sitting on a stone bench near the rear doors of the lunchroom with a dark haired teen standing over him, one foot on the bench, Faith angled that way.

As soon as she got close enough that Jonathan couldn't possibly manage to bolt before she snagged him, Faith's eyes narrowed and she yelled out, "Levinson!"

Reached out as she stalked up, Faith grabbed the dark haired kid by the collar of his leather jacket and casually tossed him behind her and out of the way as Jonathan threw a wild eyed look in her direction. The 'casual' toss landed a startled Jack O'Toole almost eight feet behind her on his ass on the rough flagstones.

"You and me, Jonathan," Faith stated. "We're gonna have words." Jonathan turned even paler and squeaked.

"Hey!" A half snarled shout from behind her caused Faith to turn slowly to see the teenager she'd tossed stalking up to her with his face red and his mouth twisted. "_No one_ just throws _me_ outta the way, _bitch_." He stepped in fast, bringing his left hand around in a hard, quick overhand punch at her face.

Faith casually leaned out of the way, bringing her left forearm up and across to sweep the punch on past and down, and brought her own right over in a short uppercut that intersected briefly with O'Toole's jaw and dumped him on his back six feet away again, unmoving.

"Was I talking to you?" Faith asked mildly, raising her eyebrows.

Spinning back to Jonathan, she pinned him in place with her eyes just as he was standing and looking ready to start sidling off. "_Freeze_, Jonno." Jonathan froze in place and Faith grabbed a handful of his collar, half dragging him past the unconscious O'Toole, across the courtyard and to the smaller alcoves past the arched entrance to the Quad.

**...**

Coming out of the lunchroom, Larry Blaisdell, Owen, and Percy West broke off their discussion of the upcoming football scrimmage on nearly stumbling over the unmoving Jack O'Toole. Kneeling down and checking the pulse of the school bully, Larry shrugged when he found out O'Toole was still alive and breathing. He peeled back Jack's eyelids and moved his head from side to side, pursing his lips slightly when Jack's eyes snapped closed again and his head lolled loosely.

Glancing over at a small group of students who were looking at the downed Jack and snickering, Larry raised his eyebrows. "So - happen to see what happened?"

Almost doubled over laughing, one of them nodded. Her companion shrugged and remarked, "Some girl yanked him off of Levinson, decked him, and then hauled Jonathan off by the collar thataway." He pointed.

Looking up at Owen and Percy, Larry started laughing. "Some _girl_?!" The other two football players started snickering as well.

Standing abruptly, Larry took a couple of quick steps over to a girl checking her makeup a short distance away. Grabbing her lipstick out of her hand, he said, "Lemme borrow that real quick. Thanks."

Grinning, he returned and squatted down next to the unconscious O'Toole again, opening his jacket and scrawling,

"**I WAS **

**DECKED **

**BY A **

**GIRL!!**"

across the front of Jack's white t-shirt in large, hot pink block letters. Standing up again, he handed the lipstick back to the now grinning girl, bowing with a flourish. "Thanks."

"No problem," she told him. "Uh... should we call someone?"

"Naw," Percy said. "He'll be ok when he wakes up."

**...**

Dropping Jonathan on a bench in one of the alcoves off of the Quad, Faith pushed her hair back with both hands, scowling down at him.

"Uh... you're not gonna kill me, are you?" Jonathan looked up at her, wide eyed.

"No." Faith shook her head. "Fucking tempted though," she growled. Jonathan shrank in on himself, looking like he was attempting to look as inoffensive as possible.

Sticking her hands in her back pockets, Faith straightened and stepped back, turning to pace rapidly back and forth while studying him. Apparently whatever effect the Rochelle simulacrum had had worn off when she was taken down and locked away back into her program and bound, or else all of the energy she'd stolen had gone back to where it came from. Jonathan looked a bit worn and tired around the eyes, but nowhere at all like the late sixty-ish looking arthritic old man Xander and Oz had described.

"Umm... " Jonathan began.

"Shut up." Jonathan's mouth closed abruptly and Faith continued pacing, frowning while studying him.

Finally, she stopped, whirling on him with an outstretched finger pointed down at his face. He shrank back from her. "I don't _get_ you, guy," she said. "I mean," Faith threw her hands up, going back to pacing and staring at him. "You seemed like a decent guy, basically. Sure, yeah, a dork, but hey - a nice guy in a dorkish kinda way." Jonathan opened his mouth again and Faith cut him off with a glare. "I even kinda _liked_ you." She made a growling sound and he shrank back farther, "And _then_ you do _this_ crap!"

Faith stopped in front of him, dropping to her heels to look eye level with him. "I don't get it. What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?"

Jonathan looked sheepish. he shook his head, "Uh... "

"Shut up. I'm not done yet." Faith bounced back up to her feet, turning to pace again. "I mean, you're smart, right? Hell - I couldn't write something like that program. I'm not even sure _Willow_ could write something like that. And you and your buddies did it for what - a freaking joke? A goddamned computer sex toy so you could get your jollies? Why not just get a Fuck-me-suck-me Susie Doll like anyone else?"

"Hey!" Jonathan bounced up off of the bench, glaring at her. "It wasn't _like_ that, ok?" He seemed to suddenly realize he was standing almost nose to, uh... not quite nose with a glaring Faith and he swallowed hard and took a step back, almost stumbling over the bench behind him. "Uh, sorry?" he said, weakly, sitting back down.

A slow grin broke across Faith's face and she cocked her head. "Don't apologize - it's the first time you've shown you _have_ a pair since I dragged you back here." Her eyes narrowing, she added, "Showing your teeth again might not be real _bright_, right now though." Gulping, Jonathan nodded as Faith dropped to her heels again, her arms resting on her knees.

"Yeah," Jonathan ventured. "But really - it wasn't like that, honest."

"'K, so what _was_ it like?" Faith studied him like an interesting looking bug, or maybe potential road kill. "'Splain it to me, Lucy. I wanna know."

"Uh... " Jonathan's eyes glazed over and he gulped again nervously. "It was," he shrugged, "Just _supposed_ to be a simulation. Like, to learn how to talk to girls. The other guys wanted to make it something else, sure, but I-I kinda held it to what we'd planned." He spread his hands, looking down, "You know. Learn how to talk to hot girls, learn how to go on dates and ask girls out, that sort of thing. _Not_ a sex program. So we could get comfortable doing it and then get _real_ girlfriends." He gave her a kind of desperate look, adding, "Honest. Really."

"Huh." Cocking her head again, Faith studied him. It matched what Xander had said Jonathan had told them. Her instincts also told her that the kid was basically telling her the truth as _he_ saw it, at least. She pushed her hair back from her face, blowing out her breath in frustration.

"You're talking to me ok," she said, finally.

"Huh?" Jonathan gave her a startled look.

"I said," Faith repeated, slowly and clearly, "You're talking to _me_ all right." Glaring, she added, "And don't _even_ say 'but you're not like a real girl' or I'll... "

"Err," Jonathan looked even more panicked. "It's not the same?" It came out almost in a squeak.

"_Grrrr_," Faith said, standing up to pace again. "Ever try, I dunno, talking to girls like they're _people_ or something? I mean, seriously." She cut over whatever he'd been about to respond with. "Look at Harris - he's a dork and he's dating the best looking girl at this school, right?"

"Right?" Jonathan managed. "But... Xander's not like us. I mean, we're not like that. I mean, I talk to a pretty girl and I get all tongue tied and start tripping over myself and look like an idiot. _Xander_ at least manages goofy jokes and keeps his cool."

The corner's of Faith's mouth curled up, "Try keeping the eyes above chest level sometimes. I hear it helps."

"Uh, right." Jonathan smiled in spite of himself, looking away. "Ok, so... you're pretty hot. Would _you_ go out with me?"

"Uh... " That was Faith's turn to step back, looking embarrassed. Jonathan looked at her with a quick flash of anger, just as quickly concealed.

"Right." Jonathan nodded. "Thanks, I learned my lesson." He stood up abruptly, looking around past Faith.

"Hey - " Faith shook her head, putting a hand out. "Not quite what I meant. Look... you knew enough about what goes on around here to do that stuff in that program with magic, right? So you know a bit about all the weird crap."

"Right... " Jonathan said, nodding. "Had kind of a crash course in it last year, with all the weird stuff around."

"So," Faith stuck her hands in her back pockets, scuffing a toe on the concrete. "I fight shit like that. On purpose. I _really_ wouldn't be good for someone like you: being around me tends to get people hurt. _Bad_ hurt." She gave him an earnest look. "_Dead_ hurt, sometimes."

"Right." Jonathan deflated a bit, shaking his head.

"Look, just find some cute girl that likes computers, and comics and that science fiction crap like you do. I know there's _gotta_ be some around here. Talk to her and ask her out," Faith stated. "And leave the magic and weirdness crap alone, 'k?" She shook her head, "I'm not _as_ pissed at you now, but you guys got people _killed_ with this, even if you didn't mean to. It might get _you_ killed next time, right?"

Sighing, Jonathan nodded, not meeting Faith's eyes. "Uh, yeah. I know." He shook his head, "Don't worry - that's the last of that stuff I'll play around with."

"Good. I _really_ don't wanna have to have this discussion again, guy," Faith nodded energetically. "Look, you could make a fortune with that type of smarts. Ten years? All these jocks and cheerleaders and thugs around here are gonna be selling used cars. You could be running shit, making a mint, and having hot and cold running babes if you wanted."

Managing a slight smile, Jonathan nodded with a bit more enthusiasm. "Yeah." Glancing back toward the Quad, he added, "Guess I better not go out through that way."

"Right," Faith said. "Ok, c'mon... I'll walk you in through the library. I'm headed that way anyhow."

"Cool," Jonathan said, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets and falling in next to her. "Hey – " he grinned abruptly, "You realize you just knocked Jack O'Toole out with one punch? One punch!"

Faith stopped, looking back and frowning slightly. "_That _was Jack O'Toole? Huh. He ain't so much."

**...**

_**Same day; Sunnydale High School main hallway, early afternoon.**_

After a brief detour past the library, Xander found Cordelia standing near the trophy case talking with Aura and Tamara. With his usual half grin, he wandered up to the trio, hands in his jacket pockets. "Hey, Cordy," he said, nodding at the other two.

Both of the girls gave him not-unfriendly looks as Cordelia grinned up at him. "Well, catch you guys in the lunch room if you head that way," Aura said. "Or later in Chemistry, if not." With a nod in Xander's direction the two headed off, chatting between themselves.

"Hey, Geek-boy," Cordelia said, slipping her hand into his. "Finally made it out of Trig alive?"

"Yeah," Xander said. "Mr. Coolidge wanted me to stay after and talk with him about my last pop-quiz scores." He smirked, "More like, 'talk at me while I looked interested back at him'."

"Right," Cordelia said. "'Cause you couldn't _possibly_ be interested in how you're doing in Trig," she said, dryly. "Not like you want to graduate."

"Right," Xander said. "And ruin my illustrious math failing streak?"

Cordelia gave him a soft growl, punching him lightly in the arm with the hand not holding his. "Stop that." Glancing up at him, she noticed his distracted frown in the direction Aura and Tamara had taken. "Hey," she said. "You _do_ know I'm not really all that mad at you, right? I mean, you guys _were_ being affected by more than just hormones."

"Huh?" The hesitancy in her voice jerked his attention back to her, and he looked down, startled. "Oh, yeah. I guess."

"Ok, so why the scowly face?" Cordelia gave him a concerned look, biting at her lower lip gently. "Really that concerned about failing Trig this early in the year?"

"Oh, no." Xander shook his head. "Just thinking. Nothing, really." He quirked a half grin and waggled his eyebrows at her, causing her to give an internal eye roll.

Shaking her head, Cordelia took a long step, making an impatient sound as she turned to face him. "Don't _do_ that to me, Xan. Talk to me."

"Just... " Shaking his head, Xander pulled his hand out of hers, spreading both hands and looking away. "Just thinking about everything this past week."

"Like what?"

"Like," Xander shrugged, looking uncomfortable. He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. "Ah, dunno. It's stupid. I just... you're starting to get some of your old friends back, and your popularity, and... I'm just kind of wondering if it means you'll be moving off from _us_ now." Everything past 'it's stupid' came out in a bit of a rush.

Cordelia gaped at him. Closing her mouth abruptly, she turned on her heel and took several long strides down the hallway, then turned back as abruptly and stalked back to him.

Glaring up at him, she cocked her head. "Is that really what you think of me?" Her voice came out low and dangerous sounding. "Really? After everything?"

"Uh... no?" Xander's eyes went slightly wide. "I mean," he ran his hands through his hair, sounding frustrated. "I don't know _what_ I mean, all right? I just don't know some times."

"Arrgh." Cordelia's hands balled up into fists. "God, sometimes you _really_ piss me off, Alexander Lavelle Harris." Xander's eyes went wider at the sound of his full name. Cordelia's eyes narrowed. "Yes, I'd like to have some of my old friends back. Is that a crime? Yes, I'd _like_ to stay popular. How about that? You think that means I'm going to suddenly dump my new friends? My _real_ friends?" She punched him in the chest, hard, turning and stalking away, only to whirl back on him.

Xander held both hands out, palms out. "Hey, no, not really... ?"

"What then?!" Cordelia glared at him. She stuck her right hand up, back out towards him. "Remember this? What was it - love, fidelity? 'To you and no other' ring a bell? You know how many guys have tried to give me rings? You know how many I've _accepted_? _One_ - _this_ one. You know how many real friends I've got? _Two_ - you and Faith."

Noticing that she and Xander were suddenly the center of attention of a crowd of passing students in the main hallway, she turned her glare and a truly vicious version of the thousand watt smile on all of them. "Take a video - it'll last you longer. Better yet, _scoot_. Ground zero's here. Be elsewhere."

With suddenly alarmed expressions, students scattered in all directions, or found fascinating things to study anywhere _except_ in Cordelia and Xander's vicinity.

"Do you _really_ think that little of me?" Cordelia turned her gaze back on to Xander. She knew her expression was saying 'Think carefully'.

"Arrgh." Running his hands through his hair again, Xander turned on his heel and stalked off, only to spin on his heel and march back up to her. Cordelia had half expected to see anger in those chocolate eyes. Instead, the honest pain and bewilderment there disarmed her completely. "No. I don't, Cordy," he said, softly. "I'm sorry."

"Well... " she grumbled. "You'd _better_ not."

"I'm just... we've been fighting almost like we did before Valentine's Day. And you've been getting some of your friends back, which is great, really," Xander said. "It just confuses me. And when I get confused, it makes me a jerk. And I don't want to be a jerk."

"Ohhh... quit with the puppy dog eyes before I decide I like you better as a jerk, jerk." Cordelia shook her head. Xander grinned at her, putting more effort into the puppy dog look. She laughed, softly. "And _quit_ being an idiot. You know... " Xander's eyebrows went up and she continued, "Aura and Tamara have been being friendlier because I _asked_ them to give you guys a chance. And you're not the _only_ one that gets confused by all this."

"Glad of that," Xander said. "Hey - we're Seniors, right?"

Cordelia nodded, a bit confused by the sudden left turn in the conversation.

"And Seniors get to go off campus for lunch, right?" Xander's grin broadened. "Why don't we take off and go eat somewhere?"

"Huh." Cordelia cocked her head, considering. "I'm not really in the mood for the diner."

Xander shrugged. "We'll go to Luciano's and have Italian. And talk."

A slow grin started across Cordelia's face, "Not enough time. We'll be late for American Lit," she protested, a bit half heartedly.

"We'll skip." Xander said, grinning even broader. Shaking her head, Cordelia took his hand again, turning them towards the front doors.

"Ok. But - you're getting Willow to tutor you in Trig _and_ Lit to make up," Cordelia said. Xander nodded. She glanced up at him, "You know... we could _try_ to not insult each other as much, I guess."

"Cordy, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship," Xander said in an atrocious Bogie voice. Cordelia snickered, and he added. "But let's not do anything _too_ drastic."


	16. Terminate and Stay Resident: Epilogue

**Terminate and Stay Resident: Epilogue -**

_**From the personal Journals of Rupert Giles, Watcher:**_

_As per usual, the Hellmouth lived up, or possibly down, to our expectations in giving us new challenges to go along with the beginnings of the school year._

_This one, even more than usual, was of a nature that I truly believe no other Watcher and Slayer has had to face in previous eras - truly a product of our times, as it were. It causes me to look with some trepidation upon the coming months and wonder what __else__ this place may come up with to throw at us, as if the Hellmouth were some malevolent and sentient being capable of planning mayhem, rather than an impersonal supernatural nexus._

_It also almost tempts me to look back at earlier times when Watchers faced simpler and more prosaic challenges, such as mere Master vampires and demon lords. As Jenny Calender used to tease me mercilessly about - God rest her soul - I am most decidedly __not__ a modern man in many of my outlooks. I am decidedly uncomfortable and ill at ease with modern society, or what passes for such, and decidedly ill equipped to deal with permutations of the supernatural as mingled with modern technology and science. There is a rather loud part of myself that suggests I would be much happier in an earlier century when the most complex of technologies were the Iron Horse and those infernal, new fangled horseless carriages._

_There is a somewhat more sensible part that suggests I would dearly miss running water and flush toilets. And modern dentistry. Ah well._

_Fortunately, that which I am incapable of fully comprehending, my Slayer's young assistants have quite grown up with, and seem to be more than capable of rising to the challenges of. I find myself appreciating Willow and young Oz rather more than usual right now - their talents were truly indispensable in dealing with this... being._

_Oz - Daniel Osbourne, to be more precise - in particular has cause me to glance at him more than once with a startled and reappraising eye. His quietness and stoic nature continually causes me to forget how much depth there is running underneath that laconic surface. It is also far too easy to take his err, 'slacker nature', to use the modern vernacular for it, at face value and forget just how much focused intelligence and perceptiveness he has. There seems to be an intensity of mind, and of convictions, that he chooses not to show often, for whatever reasons._

_Willow continues to concern me. More than a few of her comments regarding the nature of the actions behind this, err, 'living' computer simulacrum and her bafflement at Oz's disquietude tell me that often she truly does not understand that there are a great many cases where actions are more telling than __intentions__. The most benevolent of intentions throughout history have on occasion led to the most appalling of acts and consequences._

_Be that as it may, we truly would have been unable to deal with this situation without both of their skills and knowledge of computers and programming. I also must not leave out commendation in this journal for Xander's actions in helping to track down the perpetrators of this manifestation, and the information necessary to defeating it._

_I cannot give as much credit to myself and Faith in this situation, however. Unfortunately, our skills and talents were of small assistance in dealing with this creature. Faith's actions and contacts were of rather more help than my knowledge in the areas of tracking down related information._

_It must be said that I gave more than a bit of consideration to making contact with Council representatives and having the Coven in Devonshire take young Mr. Levinson and his compatriots into custody. Considering that it is my perception that at the very least, Jonathan Levinson has been around the periphery of the Slayer's activities and the supernatural occurrences surrounding this high school often enough to have gathered that it is a deadly thing to meddle with, I find it difficult to excuse his actions. He did by his own account to Xander and Oz, after all, know enough to seek other magical assistance to augment his own magical knowledge in creating his Artificial Intelligence._

_In the end, I decided to leave Faith her head on chastising Jonathan and take into consideration her opinion that he understands well enough the seriousness of his activities and shall not repeat them. I rather hope I won't be disappointed. However, my first responsibility is to the Slayer in my care, and it is in my mind that teaching her to develop and trust her own judgment and instincts outweighs a certain amount of risk. At least Faith requests my opinions, so far, before making up her mind - that she has come to do so is an as yet fragile trust that I am loathe to endanger or shatter. I feel I am engaged in a rather delicate balancing act with her at the moment between her wariness and her desire to find in me guidance she can perhaps rely upon. I would rather risk having to deal with Jonathan precipitating another crisis than to destroy that precarious equilibrium._

_There is also the consideration that the Council's and Coven's methods for dealing with what are considered 'rogue mages' can be harsh and often uncompromising. With good reason, I'll add: a malevolent practitioner can do far more damage in the right circumstances more quickly than even a rogue Slayer or master vampire. However, once I've been satisfied that Jonathan's actions were based more upon a lack of ill intent and mishap than malevolence, I am as loathe to potentially ruin the life of a promising young man as I am to risk my Slayer's trust._

_For the moment I shall settle for attempting to keep an eye upon young Jonathan and hoping that Faith was able to deeply impress upon him both the deadliness of his folly and the dangers of incurring her further wrath._

_She is capable of being rather frighteningly intense upon occasion._

_- Rupert Giles, Watcher; In this Year of Our Lord 1998, Monday, September the 14th._

**...**

_**Monday September 14, 1998; Sunnydale, #4616, Apt. B on Windsor St., early early AM.**_

Giles answered the door within five minutes or less of Faith's knock. Opening it, he gave her a slight smile, stepping aside to allow her to enter without making overt signs of invitation.

Once Faith grinned and stepped through, Giles nodded, remarking, "Excellent timing. I was preparing to have my nightly tea, if you would care to join me."

Faith nodded, following him into the living room. "Well, sure. I guess." She settled herself in on one of his armchairs, listening while he busied himself puttering around in the kitchen.

Coming back out with the tray, Giles set it down between them on the coffee table, settling himself in at the corner of the sofa. Both of them occupied themselves with preparing their tea to their liking for several minutes.

"Was your patrol fruitful?" Giles asked, settling back.

"Oh, 'nuther night, 'nuther three-four vamps, no big." Faith said. "And a weird little toadlike demon that kinda freaked Willow out. I'll show it to you in the Barlowes guide tomorrow." Giles nodded.

"At the risk of making assumptions," Giles said after taking a sip from his cup, "Shall I assume that something is troubling you?"

"Huh?" Faith glanced up at him quickly. With a slight smirk, she helped herself to a cookie from the tray, leaning back in her chair. "Something has to be bothering me for me to come by and pester my Watcher?"

"Well, no," Giles shook his head, chuckling. "However, over recent weeks, I have observed that for entertainment and/or company, you tend to harry off with Cordelia and Xander. When you come by here, it seems to be for either slaying related advice, or to talk over some other difficulty."

"Ah." Faith nodded. "Damn - getting predictable. Have to drop by here for fun sometimes and pester Xan for slaying advice."

"I rather suspect that you'll find it works better to stick to your current habits on those," Giles said, dryly. Faith laughed, shaking her head.

"Yeah. Old folks fun," she teased, making a face. "Outta be a law against it." Faith shook her head, "Naw. Neither of those. Been thinking... "

When she didn't speak again for several minutes after trailing off, Giles prompted, "Yes?"

"Was waiting for you to say 'Uh oh'," Faith grinned and snagged herself another cookie. Giles laughed, inclining his head in acknowledgment of the point. She gave him a curious look, "B drop by a lot with problems for advice an' shit, after hours?"

Giles sighed, shaking his head. "I'm afraid not. Any personal concerns or confidences she had, I believe she took to Willow or her other friends. Slaying advice she generally requested at the library when she wished it."

Faith nodded. "Ok, anyway... 'Bout that homeschooling thing you offered. Having my last name help any with that?"

Giles nodded. "Yes, rather. My Solicitor tells me that your surname adds a number of possibilities we might consider."

"Oh?" Faith's eyebrows lifted.

"Yes. 'Lehane' is a form of an older Scots-Irish name: Lyons," Giles said. "Speaking with my father, I was reminded suddenly that I have some rather distant relations among branches of the Lyons in both present day Ireland and Scotland. Several of those had branches that migrated to the Colonies in the eighteen hundreds."

"Really?" Faith cocked her head, studying him. She kept her expression carefully neutral.

"Really." Setting down his cup, Giles stood and went around the end of the couch to one of his bookcases, bringing back a thick and worn looking leather bound volume. Opening it to a bookmark, he turned it around carefully and passed it over to her. Hastily setting her cup on the end of the coffee table, Faith took it with equal care and leaned back to study it, a line of concentration forming between her eyebrows.

"Big book," Faith remarked.

"Quite," Giles said. "There's additional information in L'Estrange Ewen's '_A History of Surnames of the British Isles_', however I don't have a copy of that volume at the moment. Edward MacLysaght's combined volumes do provide a useful starting point."

While she was reading, Giles continued, his tone becoming pedantic, "There's rather a large number of variations of Lehane and Lyons in Gaelic history. O'Lehane, O'Lyhane, O'Leaghan, Leyhane, Lyhane, Lihane, Leehane, Lane, O'Leyn, and Lyhan. It is believed to have originated as the Gaelic 'O'Liathain', quite possibly from the Norman Lyons and the place name of Lyons-la-Forêt - originally Saint-Denis-en-Lyons, a forested area of what was once Normandy."

"Huh." Faith said, shaking her head. "They make you guys learn all kinds of stuff at Watcher school, huh?"

"Oh no," Giles laughed. "My father has a secondary Masters degree in Genealogy. Tracing names and lineages, _especially_ that of our family is rather a hobby of his. I received rather an earful from him when I asked him about the origins of the Lehane name."

"'K," Faith nodded, still reading. "Weird hobby, but kinda cool. So, this mean we're related somewhere?" She turned a page without looking up.

"Possibly. But quite probably not," Giles said. "It depends a great deal on just _which_ branch of the Lyons your surname was descended from. He paused, looking thoughtful, "At best it would be a rather distant and tenuous relation branching off possibly a century or more back."

"No way of knowing," Faith stated. "I always figured I looked more Italian than Irish, but hey, who knows. No idea where my mom got the name from."

She missed Giles hiding a wince behind a sip of tea, despite watching him covertly while browsing the page. "Black Irish, perhaps," Giles mused. Faith glanced up, flashing him a small grin. He poured himself another cup, remarking, "However, my Solicitor informs me that that should make it a rather simple matter to create documentation demonstrating that you're a relative from a distant branch of that limb of our family tree." Looking abstracted for a moment, he added, "A niece-uncle relationship would be difficult, but a distant cousin would be manageable."

"Kissing cousins, huh?" Faith grinned as Giles coughed, looking startled.

"Well, yes, I suppose. To use the American vulgar argot, at any rate," Giles mused. Faith stifled a snicker at his nonplussed expression.

"Cool. So, cousins," Faith nodded. "Hey - " something caught her eye as she turned anther page and she looked up. "Family crest? I thought that was like, royalty or something?"

"Ah." Giles glanced at the page she turned in his direction, nodding. "No, crests and coats of arms are associated with nobility, but they run through almost all of the ranks of major and minor nobility down to simple Knights. At times, even merchant houses and prominent yeomanry have been granted coats of arms. They originated, I _believe_, as a sign that one had been granted the right to bear arms in the service of one's liege or chieftain, going back to pre-Roman times, even." Pausing, he said, "However, the Lyons and Lehane coats would be a sign of minor nobility depending on the branch."

"Uh huh," Faith said. "Looks really cool."

"It is a rather handsome blazon, is it not?"

"Yup." Faith closed the book carefully, and handed it back to him. "Can I get a copy of that, y'think?"

"The crest?" When she nodded, Giles said, "Certainly. I don't see why not."

"Cool." Refilling her cup and fixing it with lemon and sugar, she took a couple of cookies and leaned back, studying him carefully as Giles set the book down gently on the sofa for later re-shelving. "Ok, let's do this. Gotta warn you: I'm kinda rusty on this homework thing."

"All right," Giles nodded. "We'll, err, endeavor to work around that failing as needed," he said with a tiny smirk.

Faith laughed. "Cool," she said. "Umm, what do we need to do?"

"My Solicitor took the liberty of preparing and couriering me preliminary forms for the options we've been discussing to look over," Giles said. "We can sign those and send them back to him to start the process, and he'll return us permanent documents to be signed and filed."

"Works," Faith said, dimpling at him. "Man, gotta say - between training, slaying, and everything else, things're gonna be kinda busy, y'know?"

Pursing his lips thoughtfully, Giles nodded. "Well, at the very least, it opens up one recourse. As the named guardian of a home schooled teenager, I can prevail upon the school board to allow you to be on campus during school hours so that I may attend to your schooling in between my other duties. Since you seem to be determined to be there regardless, we may as well spend the time profitably." He paused, "They probably won't _like_ the arrangement, but that can be worked around."

"Man," Faith laughed, throwing her head back. "That's gonna put a kink in that Snyder's shorts."

"It _does_ rather have its advantages, yes," Giles agreed, chuckling a bit maliciously.

"A wicked fellow," Faith said, shaking her head sadly.

**The End**

_**To be Continued in the Alternate BtVS Season 3 Episode 2: "Pearls Before Swine"**_


End file.
